[SPEAKER_00]: Randy, something just feels different.
[SPEAKER_00]: It does feel different in the, in the, in the whiskey community, and I, it got, it has me thinking.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, is, is, as the whiskey community changed?
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, there's definitely less demand for whiskey is the community dying along with the demand.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what I'm, I'm wondering if, if, if, if, if we're like nearing the end, it makes me kind of sad.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, if you want to hear about it, stick around.
[SPEAKER_01]: as we get into the subject of is the whiskey community die.
[SPEAKER_01]: We need to be specific.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're not talking about any specific platform or group, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Obviously, communities evolve and this is really about change and spoiler alert.
[SPEAKER_01]: We don't think that the whiskey community is going to go extinct or anything like that, but they're certainly some changes.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so, you know, people are noticing some things.
[SPEAKER_01]: Have you noticed some things?
[SPEAKER_00]: I've noticed some things.
[SPEAKER_00]: I can only speak for my own experience, of course.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's, I guess that's another disclaimer we should throw in here.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is just what we've been noticing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Shab is in my own heart.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've just not as gun-hode and go out there and hunt.
[SPEAKER_00]: there's there's no bottles that I'm just like dying to have you know and I'm not I still love whiskey.
[SPEAKER_00]: I still love the people in the community as much as I ever have but it seems like that like aggressive like phomo feeling of like needing to it.
[SPEAKER_00]: It seems like that along with a lot of people I run around with it's just kind of faded away.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's one thing I've noticed.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, and you don't necessarily look at the statistics of bourbon and we'll talk community of how many posed and how many reactions and how many comments and all that stuff.
[SPEAKER_01]: That stuff is down.
[SPEAKER_01]: probably 50% from our peak.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, so the people are just stepping back.
[SPEAKER_01]: We used to get maybe 150 posts a day on average.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think we're down to, you know, that 7580 range, something like that.
[SPEAKER_01]: And, you know, there's there's certainly not as much
[SPEAKER_00]: like, hi, you know what I feel like happened, you know, during that, those, those hey days, you know, the 2020 to 2020, three, four, where everybody was on the van, where everybody was there.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
[SPEAKER_00]: And now what happens when you hit a law, and when things kind of settle,
[SPEAKER_00]: You're only left with kind of the OG, like the people who were really in it for the right reasons the whole time.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
[SPEAKER_00]: And all the other kind of fans have fallen away and they're not as, they've probably moved on to something else now, got another, you know, fixation on a different kind of product, but it's like, it seems like...
[SPEAKER_00]: While it's sad to kind of see those numbers dip in, it's like kind of endearing because you're just left with the core.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like the real people, you know, the real people about it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: So it's like, it's less hype driven.
[SPEAKER_01]: Exactly.
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's more people who are truly interested.
[SPEAKER_01]: and even the spirit of the community, and that's okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, hype is going to fade, noise levels are going to go down, but the people who were like truly serious about whiskey, those people are just going to remain.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's still there because what drove that peek in the first place, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: When you think about it, the pandemic was number one, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: You got these people hold up in their homes, they're working remote, they're
[SPEAKER_00]: the government's just sending people checks right and they've got money that they're like what I do with this and there I spend more time online so there's just like this they want to feel like they belong to something because they've they're missing out on their social connections and so the whiskey community really blew up during that time.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sure.
[SPEAKER_00]: And along with other, you know, coffee and knives and firearms and all, there's a ton of communities.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like all kinds of enthusiasts communities had blames or yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: And many of us believed our own press, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Many of us were just like, oh, I've created such a perfect, you know, space for people that that's what's drawing everybody in.
[SPEAKER_01]: And now in retrospect, you look back and you're like, ah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, maybe some of that was just, you know, if you lock people in their homes and send a money to play with No, don't fight don't find a way to connect with other people Yeah, and so now that things have changed right people have gone back to normal life going away doing all the stuff
[SPEAKER_00]: Kids sports are back and everybody just less time online less less time to just waste on Not waste.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think it's the valuable part, but less time to spend With people doing things that matter and more go go go gotta get this done gotta get that done so there's just
[SPEAKER_00]: Less online time and less time with with people connecting.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and there's, you know, releases used to be like this novel thing and everybody was, you know, super excited and it could be some no name brand.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's like, oh, we've got an ultra special limited edition release and, you know, people camp out overnight because there had been so many times that they didn't and they missed out and then they see people posting online about it and they, they feel like, you know, oh, well, you know, I don't want to miss out and
[SPEAKER_01]: And that doesn't really exist anymore.
[SPEAKER_01]: Of course, the, you know, the van weekals, the B-tax, the birthday bourbons, the eight-state ejecting, you know, there's still whiskeys out there that people are excited about, and people will still go and wait in line and whatnot.
[SPEAKER_01]: But there's not as much of that release hype as we once saw.
[SPEAKER_01]: But you don't want to the repositive things that I've seen come out of this is less online troll behavior.
[SPEAKER_01]: that is true.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like the trolls have found something better to do.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, the number of dramatic flare-ups in bourbon real-time community has gone down to a pace where, like, it won't find a gut concern.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I went to the admin team and I'm like, are we not monitoring the page anymore?
[SPEAKER_01]: Because it's been a long time.
[SPEAKER_01]: since some like dramatic flare-up happen and all that stuff.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's been kind of nice, actually, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: So when you look at kind of where we've been and where we're at now,
[SPEAKER_00]: It's interesting to kind of think, okay, where do we think this is going, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Is it dying?
[SPEAKER_00]: Are we kind of going to just slowly fizzle out?
[SPEAKER_00]: Is there some hope?
[SPEAKER_00]: What's the future look like?
[SPEAKER_00]: What are your thoughts in terms of?
[SPEAKER_00]: What is the future of whiskey community?
[SPEAKER_00]: The whiskey community has a whole look like?
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, you know, when I think about the way that it was, you had, it one point somebody said, I was telling them about all the dramatic flare-ups and stuff, and somebody is like, these grown-ass men are more dramatic than my teenage daughter, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: And so...
[SPEAKER_01]: What I think happened is that when all eyes went into this one limited space, there were a handful of individuals who were motivated by whatever, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: What ever motivated them to want to seek attention in these groups?
[SPEAKER_01]: There was a lot of attention seeking behavior, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, there were individuals that wanted to recruit people to their side by doing free giveaways.
[SPEAKER_01]: There were people promoting their own content pieces that were, you know, a lot of things.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I was guilty of a lot of that, so I'm not, you know, I'm not, I'm not saying that it was all, you know, intentioned or anything like that.
[SPEAKER_01]: But now that there's not as many eyes, all of that's gone kind of a way.
[SPEAKER_01]: And what's left is smaller tighter groups, people that have really, truly, I mean, like it's so amazing to get on one of the Patreon calls.
[SPEAKER_01]: And like we did a Patreon call last week, and Roger Schaefer was on, and Sammy was on, Sammy was there with his wife, he's battling cancer, the two of them are talking about like, yeah, when I was going through chemo, I went ahead and shaved my head.
[SPEAKER_01]: The other person said, no, I didn't.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then my hair didn't grow back.
[SPEAKER_01]: And they met inside the whiskey can be, yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then they were like, oh, well, what about that bottle that you brought me back from London?
[SPEAKER_01]: And he goes, oh, when I was in London, I went to that bar that you told me to go to.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then they start telling the whole group about this bar, and it's like a hollowed out oak tree.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm listening to him.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm typing, I pull up the picture and I share the screen.
[SPEAKER_01]: that's what's left right yeah right is like connection real connection like people who have really become a part of each other's lives they're truly friends outside of just enjoying spirits right and that's probably what I what I'm most excited about the future of the whiskey industry and in community wise
[SPEAKER_00]: is thinking about like, it's just becoming more real now.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's no fluff.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's not a bunch of periphery stuff.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's just like the people who are left and doing life together.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're really, it's not about hosting a huge staying in open 50 people come, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's more of like, I'm going to invite my four, five buddies over, crack this new bottle that we've been wanting to try and sit and talk about life together.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: To me, that's what it's all about.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what it was about for us the whole time.
[SPEAKER_00]: The whole time, and during the hype of everything in the early 2020s, it turned into like so much more.
[SPEAKER_00]: I got to show a big huge to-do.
[SPEAKER_00]: It had to be massive.
[SPEAKER_00]: It had to be, you know, hyped up.
[SPEAKER_00]: And now it's just kind of like real life again.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it feels really good because you can really connect people with people on a much deeper level.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because the people who are left in the community, are people who are,
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, with doing that.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, when you had a bunch of people come in just for the hype of it They they didn't see whiskey as as that they didn't see it as a way to deeply connect with someone else They saw it as like the newest greatest thing What are you doing?
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, I'm I'm testing my new whiskey glass that I had designed why
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, there's a company out there that's a real Karen.
[SPEAKER_01]: And she threatened to sue us.
[SPEAKER_01]: Really?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: So we had been producing some traditional tulipshape whisky glasses.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, yes.
[SPEAKER_01]: We never used the name.
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
[SPEAKER_01]: But they claimed to own the shape of the glass.
[SPEAKER_01]: And since I'm just a little guy, I couldn't fight.
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
[SPEAKER_01]: But do you know what that motivated us to do, Wes?
[SPEAKER_01]: What?
[SPEAKER_01]: To go out and design a glass that was actually made for high proof American spirits.
[SPEAKER_01]: So the company that had the problem with us, their glass was originally designed for low proof Scotch whiskey.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: 80, 86 proof that type of thing.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you know what I'd noticed every time I would knows a really high proof high quality, oh, spirit in the United States.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Out of this glass, all I got was ethanol.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, little burn there.
[SPEAKER_00]: I felt that.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so we went out and we designed this glass that's actually designed for those higher pursperers.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm so confident in this glass that if anybody were to go to our website and buy one, I'm offering a money-back guarantee.
[SPEAKER_01]: Wow.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you get that glass to your house and you find yourself one of these traditional tulips shaped glasses and you know it's a high-proof spirit side by side, you can't tell the difference.
[SPEAKER_01]: I will gladly give you your money-back.
[SPEAKER_00]: So what you're saying is they can really stick it to the Karen and support the little guy by going to bourbonrilltalk.com and ordering one of these with absolutely no risk, they could get their money back if they don't prefer it, nosing it to the other.
[SPEAKER_01]: Absolutely.
[SPEAKER_01]: And if you love small business and you like sticking it to Karen, that's the way to go.
[SPEAKER_00]: Stick it to Karen.
[SPEAKER_00]: bourbonrilltalk.com, cheers.
[SPEAKER_00]: Even though some of the numbers seem to be down,
[SPEAKER_00]: the core is still very much active.
[SPEAKER_00]: I went up to an event, it's probably been five six months ago in Ohio, I did the stilltory, and it was packed with people.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm sure some of those people were just there with a friend or they weren't deeply connected in the whiskey community, but it's still
[SPEAKER_00]: The events are being sold out, tastings are being filled up, but it's with the right kind of people, it seems like.
[SPEAKER_00]: Not to say that there weren't good people who have kind of left the whiskey industry and done it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Not saying that at all.
[SPEAKER_00]: But one thing that you can be sure of right now is that if you were to have...
[SPEAKER_00]: To host the tasting in your house and put it out there to all the whiskey fanatics You know the people are gonna show up are the people who are like there for the right reason Yeah, they're gonna be the folks there there because they love the spirit.
[SPEAKER_00]: They love the connection and they're not there to just
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, we have part of my height machine.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I feel like they're missing out on something if they don't.
[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, I think that the people are just tired of chasing the bottles There's not as much hype around like, you know, pursuing certain releases as there was once before, but the still that the love for the spirit is still there Which I'm really excited about yeah, I mean obviously people they get burned out, especially if
[SPEAKER_01]: you know that your your core motivation is something that started to shift, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, if your core motivation is to find amazing whiskey and to share it with your friends,
[SPEAKER_01]: you know, the changes are probably a good thing in your life, you know, but if your core motivation was, I'm trying to gather followers.
[SPEAKER_01]: I want people to pay attention.
[SPEAKER_01]: I want to make some number of likes and reactions to every post, to comment that I make, you know, there's your, you're probably getting burnout and fatigue, and you're like, you know,
[SPEAKER_01]: And then the other individuals who weren't really super into the spirit, they were just looking for something to do.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, they don't want all that constant engagement, and so everything's kind of recalibrating.
[SPEAKER_00]: Can I speak to the newcomers for a moment?
[SPEAKER_00]: Sure.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because I think that's important because they may be feeling a little left out like, well man, should I even...
[SPEAKER_00]: Shouldn't I mean to pursue this because it seems like it's it's just for the old school like the OGs, you know what I mean?
[SPEAKER_00]: So I want to speak to the newcomers for a moment those who maybe watching this or or new in their whiskey journey They're just starting You are starting at the right time the best time the best time.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, you you don't want to start back in 2020 You wouldn't want to start it back in 2020.
[SPEAKER_01]: No, because you get in there and you be like, hey I tried well or 12 for the first time and some guy would jump in there and be like you need to
[SPEAKER_01]: Can you, you don't know what you're talking about if you're 12, you should be in your spirit.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you're like, whoa, whoa, what is going on?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, yeah, there's a whole lot less of that now.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's a whole lot less of that.
[SPEAKER_00]: We've gotten rid of all those people because they've moved on to some other thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now,
[SPEAKER_00]: This is the best time to get into the journey because it's very low pressure.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's not a lot of hype going on.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can get in there, get your feet wet, and you know the people you're conversing with are probably been around for a while.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right?
[SPEAKER_00]: They've probably been in the community for a couple of years, and you can bounce ideas off of them and they're going to be receptive.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're going to help you.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're going to be there to help you down the journey.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're gonna be able to give you more honest conversations.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're gonna be able to have better availability with bottles on the shelves It's just the the best time to join the community.
[SPEAKER_00]: So if don't be afraid right in fact Run to your nearest whiskey community and say I'm in I want to I want to I want to figure this thing out.
[SPEAKER_00]: I need some hotel
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to do a fence, I'm going to go to your drops, I'm going to find out if y'all are doing the trip.
[SPEAKER_01]: I want to go to your bottle shares, I want to host a bottle share, I want to participate in your fundraisers.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yep, now is the time.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a great time.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the OGs?
[SPEAKER_01]: It's your job.
[SPEAKER_01]: I task you.
[SPEAKER_01]: You have to make it awesome for those new people.
[SPEAKER_01]: Absolutely.
[SPEAKER_01]: Right, and teach them what it's all about.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's, yeah, show them the bigger meaning to whiskey because we all love the spirit.
[SPEAKER_00]: We love the tasting notes.
[SPEAKER_00]: We love sharing bottles.
[SPEAKER_00]: We love all that stuff.
[SPEAKER_00]: But show them what it's really about.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's about the community itself.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's about the connection.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's, if you don't show them that, you are failing the whiskey industry.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, you know, just because there's not as much hype and it's quieter, it doesn't mean it's weaker, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: It remains strong, but it's more in a real way, and I, I, for one, you know, obviously there are ramifications for somebody like me who used to, you know, supplement part of my income from
[SPEAKER_01]: The views that I was getting and the amount of attention brought in more merchandise sales and you know all of that stuff But from a core Perspective of the reason why I started this channel, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: It's actually better now than it was when it was easier to get all of these views and all of this attention, because if what I really want to do is help people to create that community connection, it's easier to do an this environment than there was when there was a bunch of false attention.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, exactly.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that leads us right into what we're all about here.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Randy's gonna get into kind of our overall philosophy and why we do what we do at Birb and Rilthalk.
[SPEAKER_00]: But before we get there,
[SPEAKER_00]: We want to let you know a couple ways you can support what we're doing and get involved like we're inviting you to get involved in what we've got going on.
[SPEAKER_00]: The easiest thing you could do is just like this video, subscribe to the channel and then ring the bell for future notifications.
[SPEAKER_00]: We drop episodes every single week.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're here to help you on your journey and we're here to connect and so if you're looking for connection You're in the right place if you're looking for trolls to tell you at what you should drink and how you should drink it This ain't the channel for you now right, but if you're looking for some place to feel invited to and feel welcome here We are and we want to invite you to just like subscribe and follow the channel first and foremost If you want to go a step further and you hear the philosophy of the channel you want to connect and you want to support that
[SPEAKER_00]: We want to invite you to check out our Patreon options.
[SPEAKER_00]: There are several options.
[SPEAKER_00]: The name is you see on the screen right now are the top three options, but there are many that fit every single budget out there.
[SPEAKER_00]: So don't worry.
[SPEAKER_00]: We've got something that works for you.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's just a deeper way you can get involved in Bourbon Real Talk.
[SPEAKER_00]: Next you go to www.berberiltalk.com.
[SPEAKER_00]: Check out the website.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is whisky goods created by whisky lovers for whisky lovers.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's no fluff, there's no stuff you don't need on there.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's all essential stuff that you would be looking for or the whisky lover in your life would be looking for.
[SPEAKER_00]: So go check that out.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's all customizable.
[SPEAKER_00]: We've got lasers that can do virtually anything.
[SPEAKER_00]: So from customizing your own website to your own goods to just get in stuff that's customized with your own logo on it, we can do it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And last thing,
[SPEAKER_00]: Randy here is a real estate agent in Dallas, Houston and now Austin as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: So if you're looking to invest in real estate by sell in any of those areas, this is the guy for you.
[SPEAKER_00]: He knows the industry and he knows whiskey and he's going to hook you up with an epic bottle as a closing gift anyway.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's worth the trouble.
[SPEAKER_00]: So go check out those three ways to support all those links are in the description below.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now Randy, why should they support?
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, because we're about more than just whiskey, you know, this was a fun episode to conceive of, because it got us back to our core, which is community and connection, bringing people together.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: I lost my brother to suicide in 2014, and I realized he was missing some of those connections that kept, that would normally keep someone bound to this world.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that was when I was growing a my whiskey journey and I saw how whiskey was a great conduit to create, you know, these types of connections.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I thought maybe if I could get you connected to whiskey, the whiskey do the rest of the job and get you connected to others.
[SPEAKER_01]: But to have those kinds of connections, you do have to have a forum where people can interact with each other.
[SPEAKER_01]: And some of the forums were filled with negativity.
[SPEAKER_01]: So,
[SPEAKER_01]: West looking at the landscape said, hey, what if we created a forum that was associated with the podcast that we moderated out all of those negative voices?
[SPEAKER_01]: And so we created Burman World Talk Community which has been super successful.
[SPEAKER_01]: And lots of great things going on in there and it's free.
[SPEAKER_01]: You can go to Burman World Talk Community on Facebook right now, join.
[SPEAKER_01]: great things going on in there.
[SPEAKER_01]: But when we went through that process, I learned from seeing that negativity that if those people can show hate to a stranger online, there's nothing that keeps me from loving a stranger online.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's why we end every episode the same way and that's this.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you woke up this morning and you're unsure whether or not any will love you, just know that we love you.
[SPEAKER_01]: We'll see you next time.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm Bourbon, we'll talk.
[SPEAKER_01]: Cheers.