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Bitters are the spice rack for your bar. Entrepreneur Jennifer Newman of Good Bitter Best is spicing up your drink game with an amazing array of bitters, cocktail kits and even providing a kitchen home for aspiring Makers, Bakers and Shakers! Her story will have you inspired — and more than a little thirsty. In today’s marketing tip we’re going to remind you to jump on that mid-year review of your marketing results!
Good Bitter Best was also nice enough to give you a promo link to use! (1 per customer, expires 12/31/2025, can’t be combined with other discounts) https://goodbitterbest.com/discount/EAG2024
Transcript:
Jeff Randolph:
Welcome to the Small Business Miracles Podcast. I’m Jeff Randolph. This Small Business podcast is brought to you by EAG Advertising and Marketing. We’re going to talk about marketing. And we’re also here to celebrate entrepreneurs. We have marketing news and advice that business owners can use to keep moving forward. This week we sit down with Jennifer Newman. She’s the owner and entrepreneur behind Good Bitter Best. And we’ll also talk to her about Makers, Bakers, Shakers. You’re dying to know what those are, right? But first, we’ve got another small business marketing tip to talk about.
Jeff Randolph:
I know when we’re listening to a podcast, the time can shift quite a bit. But as we’re recording this, it’s mid-year and that means it’s time for a marketing plan check-in. Reviewing your progress towards your marketing goals at mid-year can make a huge difference in your end-of-year success. Sometimes we have to take a step back, pause, get some perspective and then critically evaluate our own work. And that can be tough, but it’s the right thing to do and it’ll make your end-of-year review a much better time. So first, take a look at your key metrics. Whether it’s website traffic or social media engagement or sales conversions, are you hitting your targets? If not, what’s holding you back? Maybe your content strategy needs tweaking or your ad spend isn’t delivering the expected return on that investment.
Next, let’s take a deeper dive into your campaign performance. What’s working well? What’s underperforming? It might be time to pivot or refine those approaches or even double down on the winners that are producing for you. Change creative too. Creative can make a big difference in the performance of those campaigns. Now, don’t forget to revisit your goals too. Are they still aligned with your business objectives? Sometimes we forget to think that through, especially as things change. Small businesses means that the market and your business environment can change quickly. So your goals may need adjusting so that you can stay relevant.
And last, don’t forget to involve your team in this entire process. Fresh perspectives can uncover new opportunities and innovative solutions, but it also adds some accountability for the daily work and to make sure that everyone is on the same page and pointed in the same direction. A mid-year review isn’t just about looking back. It’s about setting yourself up for a strong finish to the end of the year. So take some time to review, reflect, recalibrate your marketing strategy. And that is our marketing tip for the day.
Jeff Randolph:
And welcome back to the show. I am here with Jennifer Newman. She’s owner and founder of Good Bitter Best and Makers, Bakers & Shakers. Jennifer, welcome to the show.
Jennifer Newman:
Thanks for having me.
Jeff Randolph:
We’re excited to have you here. Before we get into the business, let’s science it up first. Let’s define what bitters are. What are bitters? What are we talking about? Because it’s not Good Better Best. It’s Good Bitter Best.
Jennifer Newman:
True. Yes. I primarily make bitters as the core tenant of my company, Good Bitter Best. And the way you make them is very similar to how you would make vanilla extract, where you start out with some sort of alcohol, put your vanilla beans in and extract out the flavor. So bitters are done the same way where you would start with some sort of alcohol, clear alcohol, and then we use cane and then we put all of our bittering agents, like roots and barks, in there. So they’re all natural ingredients and it makes it bitter. So it is bitter on purpose. And we’ll talk about why later.
Jeff Randolph:
Good. Good.
Jennifer Newman:
And then you can layer in all the other flavors you want. So for example, my favorite bitter that I have is cherry cacao. So I’m putting cacao nibs in there and then some dehydrated cherries go in there, as well as a few other ingredients that complement those flavors. And you wait about two weeks, two to four weeks, stirring it every other day or so. And all those flavors are extracted into the liquid. Once that period has done, we taste it and make sure it’s at the right point. Then we can strain it and bottle it.
Jeff Randolph:
Oh. Outstanding. And if you want to talk about why you would use bitters, let’s go ahead and do that. Let’s get into that.
Jennifer Newman:
Perfect. So the point of bitters is that the first definition of a cocktail ever written down is that you have a spirit, sugar and a bitter, as well as water, which is usually your ice cube. So in order to, example, make an old-fashioned, you would start with your whiskey, you have some simple syrup or sugar cube in there and then your bitters. So the point of it is if you just were to add the sugar, you would just have really sweet liquor.
Jeff Randolph:
Too sweet. Entirely too sweet.
Jennifer Newman:
Exactly. So the bitters helped to balance the sweetness in your beverage. They also… When I talk to customers about it, I’ve mentioned it as the herbs and spices of drinks. So again, you just use a little bit, just like if you’re using paprika, you’d only use a little bit, but it really changes the flavor and brings out the best in your dishes, similar to how bitters can help your drinks.
Jeff Randolph:
I’ve heard it described as the spice cabinet for your bar.
Jennifer Newman:
Yes. Exactly. Yeah. Exactly.
Jeff Randolph:
It’s a decent definition for it. So then now, now, everyone is ready. Let’s talk about the bitters side of the business first because we’ll get into the Makers, Bakers, Shakers later. On the bitters side, tell us about Good Bitter Best.
Jennifer Newman:
Yeah. So I started out only knowing Angostura bitters, like everybody.
Jeff Randolph:
Yeah. Unless you’re a Sazerac fan and then you’re like, “Okay. Sure.”
Jennifer Newman:
Yes. Of course. Those are the two main ones. Every bar has those. But I was at a bar in Dallas with my cousin years ago and noticed they had all these little dropper bottles lining the bar. And I thought, “What kind of weird science experiment is happening here?” And so I got to talking to the bartender about it. He’s like, “Oh, we make our own in-house bitters.” And I thought that was fascinating. So I spent the next year in Kansas City looking around at bars. Again, Angostura, Peychaud’s, about the only bitters. I noticed there really wasn’t a lot of local bitters around unless the bar was really high end and they made their own. So I was like, “Oh, I see a hole in the market here. Maybe this could be fun.”
Jeff Randolph:
It’s an opportunity.
Jennifer Newman:
Yeah. And so for Christmas, I just got one of those make your own bitters kits in the mail and tried that out, really enjoyed it. I happened to be getting my MBA at the time and taking a lot of entrepreneurship classes, so decided to use it as my project for my entrepreneurship classes and had a lot of fun with it. And then I graduated, had some student debt. So I thought, “Hey. Let’s make this real and actually sell this stuff to try to pay off some student debt.” So it’s been quite the adventure. It’s been a lot of fun. Starting with bitters, I realized that there is a lot of education that has to go into that to the public. Not everybody knows what bitters are, how to use them. So that led to me creating the cocktail kit, which includes your bitter, your sugar, your garnish. So it’s all there. You just add your booze. And so-
Jeff Randolph:
Just add booze.
Jennifer Newman:
Just add booze.
Jeff Randolph:
Just add booze.
Jennifer Newman:
Yeah. So it makes it a lot easier for the beginner to try to figure out how to be a home bartender.
Jeff Randolph:
So with Good Bitter Best, you’re doing… You’ve got the cocktail kits. You’ve got bitters itself. What other things are you doing? Are you doing… There’s some education involved and you’re at different locations to meet the public? What are all of the areas that you’re in?
Jennifer Newman:
Yeah. So I do have an online shop at goodbitterbest.com. And so anyone can buy from there and I can ship anywhere. I also do a lot of pop-ups. So I’m doing Sundays in the city market, which is really fun. So that’s been a new adventure for me doing farmer’s markets. I’ve really enjoyed that. And then I also have been wholesaling to a few spots. So Shop Local, KC, that’s in Crown Center. Made in KC has dispersed my products through a few of their different stores. And then I’m also at Team Cocktail in Lee’s Summit. So I am a few local places that you can pick up my products, but otherwise there’s always online.
Jeff Randolph:
Always online. So you’re out there doing events. When you’re meeting people for the first time, what kind of questions do they have about bitters or kits? What kind of education do you need to give people right away?
Jennifer Newman:
A lot of people don’t know what bitters are, so we’ve already covered that, so-
Jeff Randolph:
We’ve got there. That’s… Right. We’ve helped educate through this podcast.
Jennifer Newman:
Yes. Yes. It’s awesome. So just explaining what bitters are, just kind of like we did, and then just explaining how the kit works. When they first see it, it’s not always super clear. And so just being able to say, “You just muddle your sugar and bitters together, add your alcohol, and then garnish and you’re done.” So it doesn’t take a long explanation, but just when it clicks in people’s heads, they’re like, “Oh, that seems easy.” And so yeah, it’s great and it is allowing more people to get into that finer cocktail making side.
Also, this year, within the last year, I have something called booze infusions, which you literally just pour your alcohol into a ball jar that’s already full of ingredients that will make your beverage taste delicious. And you can either take that and sip it slowly over ice or make it into a cocktail, which the recipe’s included in there. So that is the super easy version. So we have… I’m [inaudible 00:09:41] to set up my pop-ups like we have the infusions, which are the easiest, the cocktail kits, which are the next level, but then I already started making simple syrups in the raw. So then you can pick your bitter, pick your simple syrup. I’ve started packaging garnishes so that you can pick your garnish and actually if you’re more advanced, you can make your own cocktail kit, if you want to call it that, yourself. And so I’m trying to make it to where anybody would be able to find their niche within my booth.
Jeff Randolph:
Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, the entire world of cocktails is like a choose your own adventure book, where you could go down a path and get really deep and nerdy if you wanted to, where you say, “Oh, simple syrup. Well, that’s a mixture of sugar and water and it comes together and we can flavor that and we can do all kinds of exciting things. Bitters are the ultimate kind of science kit that you could explore all kinds of different variations on any drink you wanted to.”
Jennifer Newman:
Yeah. For sure. It’s endless. The possibilities are endless.
Jeff Randolph:
What a great unlimited business to be in. Let me ask you about the other side of that business though, because you have a shared kitchen that acts as like a stepping stone for food-based businesses to reach their goal of having a food truck or a brick and mortar store. Tell us what that looks for you because that is Makers, Bakers & Shakers.
Jennifer Newman:
Yes. I started Makers, Bakers & Shakers because for me as a food-based business, I needed to be in a commercial kitchen and that was really difficult because going from cottage law where you can make things out of your home to sell direct to customer is one thing, but then as soon as I wanted to wholesale to a place like Shop Local or Made in KC, I then have to make my products in a commercial kitchen. So that’s a large barrier to entry for someone who’s owning a small business to go from making in your home to suddenly needing to afford a commercial kitchen.
Jeff Randolph:
Right. Right. There’s a level step up there. Yeah.
Jennifer Newman:
Yes. And so I was very fortunate for a little bit. I had a local kitchen that housed me for a little while while I was trying to find my footing, but I knew I eventually needed my own space. And I knew also that other people were in the same boat as I was. So there are a couple shared kitchen already in Kansas City, but they don’t allow alcohol at them, which was an issue for me since bitters are made using alcohol. So I ended up just opening my own space in Blue Springs. And right now we have six members, which is really exciting. So it’s on a tiered system so that whether you’re just starting out, you only need a few hours per month in the kitchen, or you’re a little more advanced in your business and need more hours, we have three different tiers to make it available for anybody and then you get a certain amount of hours in the kitchen for that, and we just schedule it all using a calendar.
And so it’s been a wonderful opportunity. I’ve gotten to help people literally just starting out, don’t even have an LLC, guide them in how to do that since I have walked that path before. And I am a full-time teacher, so I do have a passion for helping people and teaching people how to do things. And so that’s been great with the kitchen is I’ve been able to help some of my makers be able to take those first steps into a business. And I just like that idea of being able to be a stepping stone for people because we’re all in this journey together. And I have a lot of women that are moms and working full-time and they want to move their business to that next level. And so it’s really fun to be in the community in that way and be able to help people in that way.
Jeff Randolph:
It’s a community resource. It’s a great business. It’s everything you’d want it to be. When someone is… Once they are a… Let’s see. Do you say client when you’re saying that… [inaudible 00:13:22]?
Jennifer Newman:
I call them members.
Jeff Randolph:
Members? Okay.
Jennifer Newman:
Yes.
Jeff Randolph:
So if you have one of those members, do you find yourself just absolutely going out of your way to support them and saying, “I’m going to shop from this person,” or, “I’m hungry and let’s go over here for this meal.”?
Jennifer Newman:
Yes. So I do… For example, I just got a message on Facebook for Makers, Bakers, Shakers for cupcakes, and I was like, “Oh, we don’t do that. We’re just the kitchen part.” But I was able to lead that person to one of my makers, so…
Jeff Randolph:
Oh, you… a connector. A connection.
Jennifer Newman:
Yeah. So that was awesome. And now I do have connecting points to a couple different food trucks, a couple different bakers. I have a charcuterie person. So it’s really fun because I do have these connections where I can lead people and bring people into the business, bring customers to my members. So yeah, it’s really fun.
Jeff Randolph:
Man. That’s two different directions. Where do you go from here? And I don’t… For Good Bitter Best? Or for the Makers, Bakers, Shakers? Do you have a path that… What is next? What do we expect from you next?
Jennifer Newman:
We really love our kitchen because it does have that community piece where we get to help people. So we hope to keep our kitchen going and maybe eventually expand it. Right now, we only have a convection oven. We don’t have a full range stovetop type thing. So we’re not able to help catering businesses yet. But maybe in the future, being able to open up something that has all of the resources that a kitchen might need would be a fun way to help the food community more. With Good Bitter Best, I would love to have a cocktail trailer sometime at some point. And getting a commercial kitchen is one of the steps because you have to have a place for your distributor to drop off your liquor. And it’s a whole thing that you have to have. So I have certain parts of the journey, but still working on that.
I would also love to be able to franchise. I would like to be able to franchise. If I can find a good way to make a cocktail trailer that is streamlined and organized, being able to franchise out cocktail trailers to other people in the area or other states would be great. I love working, but I also love traveling. So not being attached to one place is the ultimate, ultimate goal.
Jeff Randolph:
There’s a balance there. There’s definitely a balance there.
Jennifer Newman:
Yeah. So starting out here, but if we could eventually figure out a franchise and work from wherever, that’d be the awesome goal, I guess.
Jeff Randolph:
Yeah. I think as we were crawling around on your social pages, one of the things that came out was, “Oh, here’s a vacation. Oh, that’s fun.” You were on a beach somewhere. It’s a good balance. That’s a good balance. Jennifer, are you ready to go into the lightning round?
Jennifer Newman:
I am.
Jeff Randolph:
See? No hesitation. No fear. I need to instill more fear somehow. There’s nothing to fear about this. Shorter soundbite questions. You have no way to know what kind of topics I might ask about. But the first question that I’m going to ask about is the role that creativity plays in your life, because there’s creativity of creating something from scratch in the bitters world, but you also have that career as an art teacher. Do you seek out creative outlets? And this is just one of them? How does creativity play for you?
Jennifer Newman:
Yeah. So one of the number one things I tell my students is, “Even if you never take another art class, creative problem solving is something you can take into any career, anything you do.” And I feel like that’s like my superpower is I have the ability to creatively solve problems. Helps me a lot as a teacher. Helps me a lot as a business owner. So yes, my favorite part of owning a business is the creative part of coming up with the different flavors and the cocktail kits and all of that. The spreadsheets and paperwork, little. Not as good at that, but it’s part of it. But yes, love not only the creativity that I get to be involved with but seeing the creativity of my other members of Makers, Baker, Shakers is amazing. And I get so excited for them.
Jeff Randolph:
Oh. Outstanding. And on that topic, let me ask that question about the part of your business you wish you knew more about. Not necessarily the paperwork side that you don’t necessarily love, but what do you wish you knew more about as a business owner?
Jennifer Newman:
So going on this journey towards owning some sort of cocktail trailer or food truck, I don’t know all of the details about the red tape that goes into serving liquor at multiple points in the city. And so that’s something that is going to take me some more research and talking to the right people to figure out all the legal issues that I will run into and need to make sure I have all my ducks in a row for that kind of thing.
Jeff Randolph:
Yeah. There’s some hurdles and there’s also… Kansas City is conveniently located right on a state line for a border. And so you’ve got two different municipalities or state level regulations to deal with. So yeah, I understand that. I can see where that would require some work. Bitters were originally created as preservatives but also as medicinal tonics for a variety of ailments. If you could cure something with a set of bitters, what would you want to cure?
Jennifer Newman:
Ooh. I think I would want to cure migraines.
Jeff Randolph:
Oh. A migraine cure with bitters. Are you on the path to that? Are you working toward that?
Jennifer Newman:
No. I’ve had my customers tell me they use it for hiccups.
Jeff Randolph:
Oh, really? Okay.
Jennifer Newman:
Yeah, which is really fascinating. And then it was originally used as a digestive, so it’s for stomach problems. But my husband gets really bad migraines and I can tell how painful it is for him, and so it’d be awesome if just taking a little bit on your tongue would help with that.
Jeff Randolph:
Whether this is the right path or not, I suggest go home and just start every night saying, “We’re going to get to the bottom of this,” and just a different flavor every single night and just see which one works. And there could be nothing that happens, but you’ll be two months into it before he even catches on that this is a scam, so…
Jennifer Newman:
Oh, yeah. He’ll have fun trying the different bitters flavors, if nothing else.
Jeff Randolph:
Should be a great time. Let’s say that if I hand you an icy glass of just plain soda water, what bitter would you put in that right now?
Jennifer Newman:
Ooh. I just created a new bitter that is called Tropical Spice, and it’s meant for tropical drinks, but it has a lot of those baking spices in it that you would find that grow on islands in the Caribbean and it’s meant to balance out the sweetness in a pineapple-y tropical type drink. And so having those… And it has hibiscus in it, so it’s got that bright citrus-y floral to it. It’s a gorgeous color. So yeah, dropping that into the soda water, seeing the bubbles come up with that beautiful fuchsia color, it would be awesome.
Jeff Randolph:
Oh, that does sound actually really good. And I want ask about the… So you were on vacation very recently. You do like to travel. Is bitters tourism a thing on your agenda? Do you want to go to some of the factories in Trinidad or whatever and try to figure out, “Hey. How do you guys do it? Let me take this tour.”?
Jennifer Newman:
Yeah. I actually looked into seeing if I could go to Angostura and they have that lock down.
Jeff Randolph:
Ah. Fascinating.
Jennifer Newman:
They will not let you go in. So definitely secret recipe there.
Jeff Randolph:
Secret recipe.
Jennifer Newman:
Other than that, I have reached out to a few different bitters makers for advice and gotten mixed responses. I understand that proprietary information, all of that. But I am going to a conference in New Orleans this July. It’s called Tales of the Cocktail. And they have a special room in the hotel where the conference is taking place called Books and Bitters. And one of the local bookstores comes in, puts a bunch of up and then bitters companies from all over get to feature their bitters there. So I’m really excited to be part of that and have my tiny company up alongside, I’m sure, much bigger bitters companies and get to try their stuff and network with them. I don’t meet very many people that make bitters in my normal life because pretty niche.
Jeff Randolph:
Not daily. Just not. I was at Hy-Vee the other day.
Jennifer Newman:
You’re right. So that’ll be fascinating and a really fun opportunity.
Jeff Randolph:
Outstanding. Tell me. You started your business here in Kansas City. And as a business owner, what is it about Kansas City? How has that been the right incubator for you?
Jennifer Newman:
Yeah. I think Kansas City has been amazing to be in as far as people like to shop local here. People are proud to be from Kansas City. People want to support local businesses. And so I’m just so thankful for our community and thankful to be in a place where that is valued. It’s been awesome being able to be out in the community at the pop-ups and meet people that are excited about my product. Even those that don’t drink, they’re like, “Well, I don’t drink, but I love this idea. And good job.” I’m like, “Oh. Well, thank you.”
Jeff Randolph:
They’re supportive and caring even if they don’t drink.
Jennifer Newman:
Right. It’s just very sweet. Everybody’s super supportive and awesome. And like I said, I just love meeting people out in the community and I’m just very grateful and thankful that people do prioritize shopping local. It has been harder this last year or so with the downturn of the economy. So I would encourage anybody, if you have somebody’s birthday or wedding coming up, try to stop by your local shop or look on Etsy, if you can, just to keep that support for small businesses going.
Jeff Randolph:
Ah. Jennifer Newman, I am taking you out of the lightning round. Congratulations. You’ve made it through. There’s nothing to be scared of in the lightning round. I need to work on that. Tell people where they can find you if they’re interested in either thing, if they’re interested in the Good Bitter Best, and trying to figure out where you’re at next or how to get some things online and on the Makers, Bakers, Shakers side, if they have that dream of or they just have a great need for a commercial kitchen.
Jennifer Newman:
Sure. For Good Bitter Best, my website is goodbitterbest.com. And like I said, I can ship anywhere from my website. I can also do curbside pickup if you want to stop by Blue Springs. I also am on social media, Facebook, Instagram @Good Bitter Best, and I always post where I’m going to be for my pop-ups. I also teach cocktail classes at my kitchen space. And so if you follow me on social, you can also see those opportunities pop up. And it’s really fun to take the cocktail classes. You’ll have new best friends by the end of the class, I promise.
Jeff Randolph:
That’s right. The thing you’re curing with bitters is sadness. I think that’s the thing you’re curing.
Jennifer Newman:
Yeah. Yeah. It’s so fun. At the beginning of the class, everybody’s like shy, and then by the end of the class, everybody’s giving each other hugs. So it’s a lot of fun. And then for Makers, Bakers, Shakers, it’s easy. It’s makersbakersshakers.com and @MakersBakersShakers on Facebook and Instagram. On our website, we do have a bunch of information about the kitchen. We have all of our tiers on there. And we also have a form you can fill out if you’re interested in more information or coming in for a tour or becoming a member.
Jeff Randolph:
All right, Jennifer Newman, owner and founder of Good Bitter Best and Makers, Bakers, Shakers. Thanks for being with us today.
Jennifer Newman:
Thank you so much for having me.
Jeff Randolph:
And that is our show. Thanks to our guest, Jennifer Newman, and thank you for listening to the Small Business Miracles Podcast. Remember to subscribe. Leave us a five-star rating and review. Drop us a line on the website at eagadv.com if you have any thoughts. Until then, we’ll be out here helping entrepreneurs with another Small Business Miracle.