Speaker 1: 0:09

All right, welcome back to the Vero Beach podcast. We are on part three with the Walking Tree Brewery, excited to dive into why Vero Beach On your website, I noticed a statement on there. The phrase was staying rooted, practice, promise and people. Can you guys break that down for us and explain what that means?

Speaker 2: 0:28

You want to do that, babe? I can certainly do that. It's a test, I know it's a test.

Speaker 2: 0:33

She makes me recite our mission and vision statement. Like every time we hire a new employee, we're in the interview. She's like Mike, can you do our mission statement? I'm like, yes, so stay rooted in practice. Promise and people really means for us to focus on what we're doing, how we're doing it, making sure that we're doing it the best we can. So that's the practice. The promise is that we will do our best to continue that. That we promise to do the best we can, to be honest about when we fail, which happens right.

Speaker 2: 1:04

We're humans. We never owned a business. I've never had 17 employees before, never run a brewery. I've never dealt with the ins and outs of people and their lives and how they affect everything. So you know, it's the promise to do the best we can and to treat people as best as we can. And then the people is. We are focused on making sure that the people who work for us are fulfilled, that they get what they need. And then the people who are our customers are getting great products. They're getting what they need. They are completely fine with paying $6.50 a beer because they know they're going to get something that's awesome. They're going to have a great time they're going to enjoy it. It's a combination of those three things and obviously they overlap each other a little bit.

Speaker 1: 1:50

Brooke, I love that you put a test to him on that too, so explain to me why that purpose statement is so important for you.

Speaker 3: 1:57

So our vision statement is to be nationally recognized for crafting and sharing quality brands while staying community rooted. And that's on the board in the office and it's something that we ask our employees to memorize because we want to use it. You know, being just, you know, poor, average folks trying to do something, this brewery and realizing we had to DIY the heck out of this business, the logo and the artwork and the name all kind of came from things in our home. It was an art form and artwork that I did. You know the logo came from my artwork. I actually had a note card that I had printed that said stay rooted. And it was a little note card and I sold it in my art tent. And it's really funny because if I've ever done an art show since we've opened, people look at my art tent and they're like, oh, she's just biting off of walking tree and I just I just kind of laugh because my art business was trees, walk design. And so you know, born first.

Speaker 2: 3:01

I wanted to call this a banjo brewing company and got outvoted very quickly. Yeah.

Speaker 3: 3:06

But out of the necessity of of not being able to pay artists and not it, just kind of, we had these things. You know, without getting too altruistic or overtly spiritual, it felt like everything was being put in place and made available for this purpose. And what? The logo just happened to be in my art file, something I'd created. All we needed was someone to turn it into a computer thing that we could use. You know what the names? Just it, just it was all. Are it? Just it, just it was all there.

Speaker 3: 3:36

We'd made it, it was inherently part of who we already were, and it means something you know to, to look at the fact that. You know, the mangrove estuary is what keeps Florida from floating away and basically disappearing, and that's a really neat image. It's one of the few things that are helping to filter our lagoons, which are dying and are very ill, and we're even affecting, you know, our mangroves. But without them it'd be, the waters would be a lot sicker than they are. So there I just kind of remember, thinking this is perfect. It covers all the bases, it says all of the things, it has all the messages. We don't have to work so hard figuring there it is.

Speaker 3: 4:22

Evaluating that with a team. We actually did like a big Venn diagram brain board thing with all these words and what do people think about? Where we're going and who we are? And we found the commonalities, put them in a Venn diagram and that's where practice, promise and people came from. And that's the litmus test that we should be measuring ourselves at at all, at all times. It makes me want to have a meeting with you, oh God, we need to have a meeting.

Speaker 1: 4:52

He's like thanks, Brian, you just got another meeting on my books. I think it's very important Understanding the purpose and the mission behind it. A purpose statement helps you stay focused and helps you keep direction. It's like a compass for everybody, for your team, so I love that you guys have that so well in place With running the brewery. What would you say it's taught you about the Vero Beach community?

Speaker 2: 5:15

There's so many different kinds of people in so many different industries and walks of life and from so many places. There's people from all over that come and visit Vero Beach and breweries drive tourism. So you know, I just learned one of our regulars I guess it's been a little while since I learned this was, you know, a naval officer on a submarine, and like that's fun to talk to, like, oh, you spent your early twenties underwater in a tube with nuclear missiles. That's pretty crazy. It's just neat to be able to stand at the bar and have conversations with people from all over the world who have, you know, different tastes and different takes on beer and where they've gotten it from, and it's just, it's just cool to see it really is Do you work with local, like some of the local producers I guess around here in the area?

Speaker 1: 6:05

I mean, we're new to the area so we're still trying to fill it out we're we're learning that a lot of the local places, like yourself, will work with other local.

Speaker 2: 6:13

I guess partners. We do as much as we can. So the biggest issue is our scale. Because we're making pretty large quantities in batch size, like when we make small, like fruited sours and stuff like that. I'm doing my best to buy local fruit and local stuff like that. Like we use our local tea shop because I like putting tea in beer. It provides great flavors and stuff like that. Like we use our local tea shop because I like putting tea in beer. It provides great flavors and stuff like that. So we do as much as we can At our scale.

Speaker 2: 6:39

It's a little difficult for some stuff because when you're making 600 gallons at a time or 1,200, getting that much from a local supplier can be difficult. So, like when we make a full batch of sour beer, you know there's hundreds and hundreds of pounds of fruit puree that goes in there and there's just not a great way to get it locally. So, as much as we can, we do. Like we used to get peaches grown decently local, actually out near Lake Wales, and we used to make a beer called Peach Destroyer. That farm doesn't exist anymore, but you know we do as best we can. But it's tough at our scale. Yeah, exist anymore. But you know we do as best we can, but it's it's tough at our scale.

Speaker 2: 7:20

Yeah, I can understand that. So the university of Florida, um, and a handful of other farmers have been trying to grow hops in Florida for the last 10 years and you know, when we first opened, we were gung ho trying to figure out how to do it. And then, when it came right down to it, you know there we went out to a producer at a near Bock Tower in Lake Wales and I was like awesome, so okay, your price is double and I need basically this much to produce a full batch. And he looked at me and goes that's my entire harvest. So I was like, oh, so I would eat your entire harvest. It's more than double my price. Yeah, okay, that's you know.

Speaker 1: 7:58

So it's a tough sell for both of us right.

Speaker 2: 7:59

Because I want a price point that he can't match and I'm going to take everything he makes.

Speaker 1: 8:05

Yeah, I never really thought of it from that way of you know, when you hear people talking about supporting local and stuff like that, and then you know we like to go and support local businesses and you know local breweries, restaurants, stuff like that, but when it comes to a business aspect it can be very challenging and that's a good view to have. That I never have really thought of as well Because, like you said, you would take it. You would have taken his whole harvest and and you couldn't take it for that amount and that would be hurting him. So it was just best for you not to work together though, even though your heart says you want to. But there's just sometimes when you run a business you can't, it's novel but will will you sell 6,000 of them is a whole different question, right?

Speaker 1: 9:27

So what does supporting local mean to you?

Speaker 3: 9:29

So the way to make up for that, that area, which is, you know, again difficult is that that local for us and staying local and supporting local and buying local is the way that we give back to the community and participate with nonprofit organizations, a lot of our environmental groups and I like to say that we've given a lot of our environmental groups that are bringing awareness to what's going on in our lagoons and estuaries the ability to use our brand to help get their message across. Go for it. What can we do to help put your message in front of a beer drinker who might not have thought about it? We make our space available for social events and nonprofit fundraisers. We have the space and we have the ability to be flexible and allow this gorgeous building to kind of get utilized for all kinds of all kinds of neat things.

Speaker 3: 10:28

So we have a lot of nonprofits that come here on the regular and and do their, their, their annual events or benefits, and then just showing up and participating.

Speaker 1: 10:39

All right, so I have one more question before we wrap up. What is it about Vero that you guys love?

Speaker 2: 10:45

I'm from Fort Pierce and I, in my early, early years, moved away for a handful of years and as I was away my entire family moved from Fort Pierce to Vero. So when I was going to move home I was like, oh, I guess I'm moving to Vero. So I've been in Vero since 08. I'm a Fort Pierce native. I was actually born in Vero Beach Hospital, so I'm truly a native. But I think it's just, it's a great town. We don't have big condos on the beach. It's very laid back here. We don't have traffic, the beaches are gorgeous, the river's pretty, it's centrally located in Florida and there's a lot of fun stuff to do here. There really is. And you know it's just a great little town with a great community and you know you can go downtown and we can walk around and see so many people we know and you know it's just a fun town.

Speaker 3: 11:37

Where did you grow up, brooke? I'm a military brat, so I am not a native, but I've been here a very long time, the longest I've been anywhere. And I jokingly say I got stuck here because I got divorced and I had kids time, you know. So you can't go anywhere. But I've really grown to love this town and it was grown to love it because I'm a mountain person by nature, I prefer the mountains and I like shoveling snow. Oh no. Yeah, I love fall and cold and jackets and boots and hot chocolate.

Speaker 2: 12:15

She does love boots.

Speaker 3: 12:16

I do. I love cold. She's a unicorn. What do I love I love? I love cold, and um, she's a unicorn. Um. What do I love most about Vero? What? What you.

Speaker 1: 12:27

Oh, that's, awesome, yeah, that's awesome.

Speaker 3: 12:29

I think it's you. Yeah, you're welcome.

Speaker 1: 12:32

Thanks Again. We want to just thank you guys for giving us some of your time here to sit down and be a part of the Vero Beach podcast. We really appreciate you both for sharing your stories and what you guys love about the community. Thank you, guys both for reaching out to us and being a part of this.

Speaker 3: 12:50

Thanks for having us. Yeah, thanks for having us. It's been a lot of fun, awesome. You guys are awesome.

Speaker 1: 12:53

Yeah, if you guys have enjoyed this episode, make sure you click review and we will catch you next time. What?