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25 Blueberry Cran Smash

Marketing Insights Gained Abroad

This week we’ll be learning more about one of our newest team members Megan! She had a great experience participating in many international marketing discussions and exercises while studying abroad in the Netherlands. Join us as we discuss the difference in marketing here compared to the Netherlands along with Megan's changed perspective from this experience. 


Blueberry Cran Smash

This drink is one that Megan really enjoys. It's a simple drink that includes blueberry vodka, cranberry and fresh lemonade. We're sure you'll love this refreshing, easy-to-make cocktail. 


Ingredients

  • 1.5 oz. of blueberry vodka
  • 1 oz. of fresh lemonade
  • Top off with cranberry juice

Steps

  1. Pour blueberry vodka and fresh lemonade into a tall glass filled with ice.
  2. Stir well and garnish with a lemon twist

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Episode Transcript

Rich:          Hey, Catelin.

Catelin:     We're back.

Rich:          We are back. These every other weeks, it just seems so long.

Catelin:     Yeah, I know.

Rich:          But yeah, the phones have not been ringing off the hook for more episodes every week. So if you want that, they can call. There's a number at the end of the episode. How have things been? Doing good?

Catelin:     Good. Yeah, it's wild. It's basically April. I don't know how that happened.

Rich:          Yeah, and we've had fall, spring, and then way more winter and then snow. And I hear tomorrow is fall spring part two. So, that'll be exciting.

Catelin:     Is it? I don't look.

Rich:          Yeah, so 70-ish.

Catelin:     I don't look because I can't do anything about it.

Rich:          70-ish tomorrow.

Catelin:     70-ish?

Rich:          Yeah, and then back into the 40s.

Catelin:     I just wear the same coat and waterproof shoes from November until June, because-

Rich:          I've started just wearing my light Patagonia fleece because I am revolting against winter coats. And it's fine until one of those days when you go somewhere and it's 31 or something and you're like, "Okay, this is not enough."

Catelin:     Do you just want to be a little tech, bro? Is that why you're wearing a Patagonia fleece?

Rich:          No, I got it for free.

Catelin:     No, it's a vest I guess.

Rich:          I got it for free from HubSpot, but-

Catelin:     What's up, HubSpot? I'll take a free jacket.

Rich:          It's just easy. You just have to do one of their boot camps and usually at the end of it, if you're one of the first X number of people to submit a form on the review or whatever, and you attended all sessions, then you can get a fleece or something. So, it's not always a fleece but, that was for my-

Catelin:     That's not true though. I wouldn't wear it. I don't like things with writing on them.

Rich:          This one's nice because-

Catelin:     Like a politically activist shirt.

Rich:          So the logo is actually on the shoulder and it's just the logo mark.

Catelin:     Yeah. It's not like offensive.

Rich:          Yeah, it's not terrible. And I think there's a partner badge on the front. But that's not why we're here. We're here to talk about apparently a blueberry cran smash, which Megan's introducing us to.

Catelin:     It's tasty.

Rich:          It sounds very tasty.

Catelin:     I would make it with gin.

Rich:          You would make it with gin. Yeah, absolutely you would. That's true.

Catelin:     Well, we were at a liquor store because anytime my husband and I go anywhere, we have to stop at the liquor store. It's our destination and-

Rich:          There different ones in every city and they're all completely-

Catelin:     And they have a different [inaudible 00:02:28]

Rich:          Small.

Catelin:     Yeah, I'm really proud of him. He got promoted and it was a big deal. And that's one of the things that he does to celebrate is buy a nice bottle of something. And we were going through Sioux Falls and he's like, "Hey, can we stop? I haven't gotten my celebration bottle." And I was like, "Absolutely, because you are spectacular and I'm so proud of you." He hates that he's somewhere he can feel me saying those words and his skin is crawling.

Rich:          He doesn't listen to the podcast, does he?

Catelin:     I think he does sometimes.

Rich:          Okay, well you might want to tell him just [inaudible 00:03:02] just skip this one. Or just be embarrassed. Whatever.

Catelin:     15 seconds. Anyway, so we stopped at a liquor store in Sioux Falls and Sipsmith has a lemon gin that I really like. And then they had another fruit flavor that he was like, "Do we want this?" And I was like, "Well probably." I can't remember what it was. I feel like it was a pink, I'm going to have to look and see what it was. But-

Rich:          Pink grapefruit maybe?

Catelin:     Maybe. I think it was-

Rich:          I've seen that out. It was grapefruit.

Catelin:     Yeah, strawberry smash. It was strawberry.

Rich:          Strawberry.

Catelin:     I think it was pink.

Rich:          We got a strawberry rhubarb gin too. That was-

Catelin:     What?

Rich:          ...because we had a recipe that called for rhubarb gin. Good luck finding that in the Midwestern or in the US. You'd think with rhubarb growing in ditches, in people's backyards everywhere. But no.

Catelin:     Rhubarb is a weed.

Rich:          I know. You can make a delicious pie though, or a crumble.

Catelin:     I love rhubarb. My grandma always had it and had bars and stuff with it.

Rich:          And we never did the strawberry rhubarb. It was always just rhubarb.

Catelin:     Straight rhubarb

Rich:          But I mean, there's sugar in there and stuff-

Catelin:     A crumble.

Rich:          -like [inaudible 00:04:10].

Catelin:     Yeah, you feel them.

Rich:          Love it.

Catelin:     Actually, that's a great point. I need to get some rhubarb transplanted this spring.

Rich:          Oh, that's good. Yeah, if you made a rhubarb crumble, I would eat some. I would even come up to Sioux City.

Catelin:     Grandma Doris has the best recipe.

Rich:          Fantastic. So our drink today is from Megan who the whole episode's about her studying abroad in the Netherlands which is like not where you hear of people studying abroad usually.

Catelin:     No.

Rich:          So, but also very fascinating.

Catelin:     It's smart.

Rich:          But this drink has nothing to do with the Netherlands as we learn in the episode. And not something that any... People there would just look at you funny I think, if you were serving this to them. They might drink it, but apparently they're all about their European beers. And that is the thing.

Catelin:     Which I do. I get some hometown pride or it's like patriotism for them. Is that basically what it is?

Rich:          And speaking of hometown town pride, we'll have Megan confirm this of course when we talk to her. But this allegedly came from just her asking a bartender here in Sioux City, "Just make me something."

Catelin:     That's good, yeah.

Rich:          So they made her a blueberry cran smash. And I do feel like, I was just going to say, your lemon gin would be good in this, but then how do you get the blueberry in? Because the blueberry's in the vodka. I guess you could just use blueberries, right?

Catelin:     Yeah, you could muddle some blueberries with the gin.

Rich:          Maybe. Yeah, so this one is pretty easy. It's actually, this seems like a very small drink. One and a half ounces of blueberry vodka, one ounce of fresh lemonade. Top it with cranberry juice. And then you can do a lemon twist as well.

Catelin:     I mean, a drink is usually only four ounces, five ounces. Six?

Rich:          I guess it would be. Yeah, I mean I would-

Catelin:     You're just used to a stout cocktail that's all liquor.

Rich:          Well I mean, I'm also used to cocktails at home during quarantine where we're going to watch a movie and I don't want to get up. So I'm making it up. I'm making that 16 ounce cocktail. I'm going to have it all night. I'm just going to sit there and sip it for a while. But I mean, I think with this, I would probably just double the amounts, maybe.

Catelin:     Double the amount of alcohol. I think that's smart. I think that's a great plan.

Rich:          And we've got a friend who always brought blueberry vodka. He was obsessed with blueberry vodka. So we would always bring the Smirnoff blueberry vodka to our parties and things. And then he would be the only one drinking it. And then he would leave it for us. And I'm like, okay. And then it would sit there.

Catelin:     We used to-

Rich:          We actually moved a bottle of it when we moved to Omaha from San Diego. We moved a partial bottle of blueberry fucking vodka.

Catelin:     When we entertained all the time, we would have people because it was like, there's that time after you graduate from college. Before you and your friends are all making real money where you feel like you can't drink somebody else's alcohol. You got to bring your own to the college party. And then-

Rich:          Oh yeah, yeah.

Catelin:     ...then you got to bring your 12 pack of gross IPAs to somebody's party at their house. And so when we were entertaining, and we would always just have Busch Light or whatever at our house and then other stuff to drink. But people would bring six or 12 packs and then didn't want to take them home with them. So we'd have, we called them orphan beers, and then we would either have orphan beer parties or I would take them to my friend Rick and be like, "Hi, you left these at our house." And then other people left other things and he would just adopt our orphans.

Rich:          So we have orphan vodka at our house that's still lingering.

Catelin:     Never liquor. Always beer.

Rich:          And I guess we could put the blueberry vodka just in lemonade and some ice would probably be really nice and fresh.

Catelin:     Yeah, perfectly fine, I guess.

Rich:          Yeah, it's just an odd one because I mean, there's just not that many things I guess that have blueberry as a core flavor. So here's a good one. I could do this. I just have to go buy some cranberry juice and lemonade. I have the vodka ready.

Catelin:     There you go. Pet off.

Rich:          Very good. All right. Well that's exciting. And this is a really unique drink. I love that we're getting some funky fun stuff. Because my one fear is that we'll just run out of cocktails, but I don't think that'll happen.

Catelin:     I think we'll be good. I'm pretty confident in us. If nothing else, we could just start work shopping our own recipes.

Rich:          We could. That wouldn't be a bad thing. I could just see that at the bar here in the office, just stacked with bottles and we're just mixing and matching. We could do a contest. We could have everybody have to create their own unique drink and then we could taste test them, or we could have Tyra come taste them. Your in-home bartender slash good friend and he could be our judge or he and maybe a couple of other people. Maybe the coffee folks downstairs could taste.

Catelin:     [inaudible 00:09:02].

Rich:          Well I'll run that by the fund committee. I hear they're ramping back up again and we'll see what they say. Although Zach is sitting there listening to this and he is part of our fund committee, so he'll be able to weigh in on whether that can be done or not. And it'll probably be like, "Well, how much are you willing to put to a budget for this?"

                  All right, yeah. All right, well great.

Catelin:     Should we get into it?

Rich:          Yeah, let's just get into it with Megan and her Dutch experience in the Netherlands working for a really big brand, that was pretty exciting and a pretty big challenge in Europe. So very exciting stuff.

                  All right. And we are back, Caitlin. It's so good to have our guest today. And she's sitting here, I see her. She's waiting in the wing to chat with us. So let's just get right to it and say, "Hey, Megan."

Megan:     Hello.

Catelin:     Welcome. We're so glad you're here.

Rich:          Don't be shy. You can speak up.

Catelin:     She's not shy.

Rich:          That is true. That is definitely true.

Catelin:     She's my fellow Sioux City office extrovert, and I'm so glad that she's here.

Rich:          I know. It's good to have those in every office. It takes pressure off of the introverts. Sometimes, and sometimes it just puts pressure on the introverts if you're in the cross hairs of the extrovert. But don't attack me in this. I'm just a general host.

Catelin:     You're an ambivert.

Rich:          I am. Well, yeah. Because I can flex what I need to be, but generally I like my alone time.

                  We've talked about that before though. All right, so we talked a little bit about the cocktail that you chose, Megan. So where did this blueberry cran smash come from?

Megan:     So essentially over the summer... I mean, there is some things to do in Sioux City, but my friends and I's favorite thing to do is go out and have drinks. So I'm a big fruity, sweet person when it comes to cocktails. If I taste alcohol, I'm probably not going to enjoy it. So put some other stuff in there.

Catelin:     You and Jessica have that in common.

Megan:     So over the summer I was wanting to try something new, and I love asking bartenders to make something that they don't usually get to make very often. So a girl, I think actually a bodega, she was like, "Oh, have you ever tried this before? It's the Smirnoff ice, red, white, and blue, but different." So it was blueberry vodka-

Catelin:     But not a Smirnoff Ice.

Megan:     So it's blueberry vodka, cranberry juice and lemonade. And it was one of the best refreshing things.

Catelin:     Did she layer it or was it all together?

Megan:     Yeah. No, it was layered. So it had a nice little radiant-

Catelin:     Like a little bomb pop. So then-

Rich:          Oh, go ahead.

Megan:     That just became kind of my summer go-to drink after that.

Rich:          So first of all, it takes some guts to be like, "Bartender, make me a fruity drink," and just let them go. So that's kudos to you. I applaud you. We were in San Diego last week and went to a bar that was fantastic. Cannot remember the name of it because I'm bad with names. I think it was 619 something. So it was the area 619 something, something, something. I don't know. Anyway, they had on the menu a bartender's choice, and so you could order that and it was like $13 and you would get whatever the bartender made you, and you would drink it and you would like it.

Megan:     You would like it.

Rich:          It's really... I did not do that. So I had a blueberry one there that I think you would've liked. I think I posted it in Slack. It was thick. It was a blueberry puree almost, but really, really good. I think I could get down with this one. Vodka lemonade, cranberry juice.

Catelin:     Yeah, it's vodka. Which is your favorite food?

Rich:          Well, I mean, not really. I would say that. I think Cabernet is closer to my favorite food than vodka.

Catelin:     Or it's gin. I've been trying to convert you two all along.

Rich:          All of these consumed. I had a gin drink this week, so I had a couple of gin drinks.

Catelin:     I'm proud of you.

Rich:          I did not take a vodka drink and convert it to gin, which you can do of course. Anything you can make with vodka could be made better with gin according to Caitlin.

Catelin:     That's my personal motto.

Rich:          Yeah, absolutely. All right, so this drink did not come from your time abroad. It's not the popular drink in the Netherlands or anything.

Megan:     Actually, quite the opposite. Beer rules the region. If you're going out, you're getting beer. So that's kind of where I learned to like beer. Because like you said, what the bartender-

Catelin:     You didn't have another choice.

Megan:     Exactly. It's like they give you it, you like it.

Rich:          You want to get your buzz on tonight, you're having beer. Thank you. What would you like to drink from all of these beers?

Catelin:     Do you have a preferred lager or is there a go-to if you have to drink beer?

Megan:     So in the Netherlands, beers are kind of pricey, so I would always go with a Belgian Tripel, which is higher alcohol percentage. So it is, and it's sweeter, so it's more bang for your buck. So that was my go to.

Catelin:     Love the budget conscious queen.

Megan:     Exactly.

Rich:          Were they doing ciders or sours there as well? Or just beers mostly?

Megan:     I think there was a somewhat big market for ciders, but I don't really remember if I tried a sour at all. They usually stick pretty close to the time and true classic beers, I feel like. Just because Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands are known for it.

Rich:          Yeah, that's true. Well, that's fun. All right. So you went to the Netherlands-

Catelin:     How did you end up there? How did you end up in the Netherlands?

Megan:     So I've always wanted to do study abroad experience just because I feel like ever since I've known myself, I don't necessarily feel like I fit in the Midwest. I feel like my soul is a traveling spirit. And you could just say it's the young twenties mentality, but I don't know, I've always kind of wanted to live abroad. So when the opportunity presented itself, I could do it a semester abroad. So I went to Morningside, FYI. We're all Morningsiders here.

Rich:          Yes. Common theme. Very common theme. Some of us teach there.

Catelin:     It's a prerequisite. It's not really, but...

Megan:     They kind of have a bit of a complex process compared to some of the other people that I studied with, where you have to you to go through an interview, two interviews. And then once you're approved, they also give you a $10,000 scholarship to go towards your program costs.

Catelin:     Oh, wow.

Megan:     So yeah, once I did all of that, got approved. I had chosen the Netherlands just because it was a lot cheaper. I was looking at London originally because I wanted to do a design internship, but that was going to be very expensive. And-

Rich:          Not a cheap city.

Megan:     No.

Rich:          Very pricey.

Megan:     And at the time I was dating a guy from the Netherlands, so it was like I kind of get to see him, experience his culture, get to practice my Dutch, because I had been learning Dutch for a year at that point. So kind of putting it into life skills and actual-

Catelin:     Rich is going to say something snarky.

Rich:          I just need to roll back for a moment. So what I'm hearing, is this started with you were dating a guy from the Netherlands?

Megan:     No, because I had actually always wanted to do it. And then it was kind of the extra security of I have family there.

Catelin:     Somebody that you could rely on.

Megan:     A support network there. And they actually did become kind of my second family. I'm still really close with his mom. But yeah, it kind of made the experience better too, just because I feel like I had a guide anytime I needed it. Because they were from there.

Rich:          Was he a foreign student at Morningside then? And that's where you met?

Megan:     He was.

Rich:          And then when you were abroad-

Megan:     You just re-exchanged.

Rich:          ...was he still at Morningside in the US while you were in there?

Megan:     No.

Rich:          He was over there too?

Megan:     Yeah.

Rich:          Oh, okay. That makes sense. But he's why you started learning Dutch, I assume?

Megan:     Yeah, but-

Catelin:     We carried the Dutch, we ditched the boyfriend.

Megan:     Exactly.

Catelin:     We had anything to do with it.

Rich:          Well now Megan's dating life is a group effort. We all know this.

Catelin:     Listen, she invited all of the olds into that party. And-

Rich:          I know, I know.

Catelin:     ...mostly we just sit around and be like, "This seems hard."

Megan:     Essentially my own dating show.

Rich:          It is. It is. It's really fun too.

Catelin:     We should make you a jingle.

Rich:          Oh, we could do that. We need, who does music? Do we know anybody who does music? We'll figure it out. So did you studied marketing and I assume in the Netherlands?

Megan:     Yeah, so actually it worked out perfectly because I'm a graphic designer here at Antidote, and I studied graphic design in Morningside, but I also had a minor in Marketing. So essentially I just focused on getting all my minor requirements for marketing knocked out during that semester-

Rich:          No.

Megan:     ...just because it's a lot easier to try and find a program that does something as broad as marketing rather than design. So yeah, so I did their International Business School because I studied at Masich University, which is in of course Masich. And it was just really cool having a different atmosphere, especially compared to Morningside, which is in a small town. Not small town, but small city, Iowa.

Rich:          Well, and it's-

Megan:     Also kind of shields when you're on campus it's a small town in the middle of a bigger city.

Rich:          Yeah, that's what I was going to say is that neighborhood is really pretty well self-contained. You could just stay there and not ever have to leave, unless you really needed to go somewhere. But it does feel like a small town over there, which is kind of nice. But also, like you said, if you feel like, "I want to get out of here, I want a big city," you got to go figure that out somewhere else. All right.

Catelin:     Yeah. You worked on some bigger campaigns?

Megan:     Yeah, so actually-

Rich:          A big brand, I hear. Like a pretty big one. Well, global.

Megan:     I mean in the Dutch people's minds, it's probably not as big as a brand.

Rich:          Tiny, yeah.

Megan:     So yeah, fortunately they do block periods essentially. So during my second block I did a class called Brand Management, and we get to do what they called a brand challenge. And so we had AB InBev, which is the Budweiser brand, and for I think copyright purposes, they were only known as Bud in the Netherlands because there's a Czech beer that was also Budweiser. But so Bud was our brand challenge and we had Bud Zero for my specific group, which was essentially I was the only American. And actually at Masich University, it's like 80 or 90% international students. So literally everyone is coming in with a different perspective, a different lifestyle that they are used to and perspective, which just for me as I'm soaking in all of this new culture and everything. It was the cherry on top to my educational experience and something that I think not everyone gets to have, especially if you are from a smaller city.

                  But so we were able to work with this brand and create a campaign that was how are we going to market this to Dutch people, who don't necessarily have the best perception of this brand because it's American.

Rich:          No, I completely get it. So, wow there's so much to unpack there. So first of all, so I don't drink beer. So is Bud zero a zero alcohol or is it-

Megan:     Yes, yeah.

Rich:          Okay. So you also got-

Megan:     That's a hard thing as well because it tastes like beer, but you don't get the buzz. So why would I drink?

Rich:          Why would I bother?

Megan:     Exactly.

Rich:          Yeah. And I don't know it in Italian, my husband does, but in Italy, when you get a... What is it? It's a caffeine free skim milk cappuccino or something. The Italian translation for it is why bother?

Catelin:     I was just going to say why bother?

Rich:          Yeah. And that's what they call it.

Catelin:     Sounds like somebody beat me to it.

Rich:          Yeah, and I don't remember what that is. I could look it up. So that's cool. So that's a challenge, which is really fun. Did you grow the brand? Were your efforts successful or was it just too short of a period for you to really measure that?

Megan:     So actually how it worked so everyone that was taking the brand management class got split into teams. There was three different challenges. One was about how they were going to market during the FIFA World Cup because they were the main brand sponsor. And then the other one was just, I think the normal beer and how to market it to younger generations. Just because people, if you go for a beer in the Netherlands, one of the automatic brands in the top tier, one of their highest competitors is Heineken because Heineken dominates it. Because they are the native brand. And then there was the Bud Zero product, and essentially we are all into four or five people teams and at the end you had to present, that was your final for the class, and if you made it, then you also got to present in front of their regional team.

Catelin:     Wow.

Megan:     So my group did.

Catelin:     Obviously.

Megan:     Put it in there.

Rich:          Yeah. Of course.

Catelin:     Shining star, Megan Kyle.

Megan:     I did do most of the graph design for the presentation. So I do feel like that always aids a presentation.

Catelin:     Absolutely.

Megan:     And yeah, we won the challenge actually for our section, our category. And it was essentially making sure that people's perception of the US when it comes to this beer, because it is such a big image associated with the brand, is going to be a positive one and more of a nostalgic. Because a lot of these people are like, "Oh, I grew up watching American movies. That's all we did. When we think of America, we think of Hollywood, TV, movies or sports like athletics." The typical leather jackets or the varsity jackets and going to a party after the big game.

Catelin:     It's like free.

Megan:     So using that nostalgia and association in terms of bringing fun American culture and not necessarily like, "Oh, this beer is shitty compared to the beer we have here." And using that to our advantage. It was a little bit of a extra challenge with the Bud Zero product. But I mean a lot of people there are really conscious of if you have a big presentation. A lot of people are more academic forward facing. I feel like they do like to have their party moments, but just in general, school's a little bit more difficult than I feel like it is here. I mean, it really depends on what program you're doing, but it's a little bit more intense. And social drinking is such a big thing there.

                  So if you're not wanting to go super hard, having a product like Bud Zero is helpful. And so that's kind of how we pushed it and did that. And along with we created a social campaign that would be partnering with some big influencers that are in the Netherlands that could be like, "Hey, instead of drinking beer or another alcohol, I'm going to be enjoying this Bud Zero." And kind of incorporating that, having some fun events that are American themed with pulling off that nostalgia to get people to associate the brand better.

Rich:          I feel like that's what happens when people try to do '80s themes now. Having lived in the '80s, sure there was some fluorescent stuff and big hair and things, but like-

Catelin:     No, you just turn it up to a 1000.

Rich:          Yeah, the way they do it now it's like, "No, our bedrooms were not painted in six different fluorescent colors. That didn't happen."

Megan:     I think we were going to have food... There was one event that we had pitched them that was this party event. There would be food trucks with hamburgers, sliders, and hot dogs, popcorn.

Catelin:     I've heard one time that hotdogs are the only actually American food. Everything else we've just ripped off of from other countries and cultures. Wouldn't surprise me at all.

Rich:          Probably. There's a lot of things that you think of that are not, and then that are you're like, "Oh, that must be Italian. But it's really an American thing that we made to seem Italian."

Catelin:     Spaghetti and meatballs, that's not Italian.

Rich:          Right. They have meatballs, but it doesn't go on the pasta.

Megan:     Alfredo, that's not a thing. I'm pretty sure. I feel like I heard that in Italy, they might call it something different. It's not necessarily the same, but yeah, Alfredo's-

Rich:          There's not really a creamy white sauce that you would get in Italy or an Italian restaurant. So you'll get a creamy one like on a carbonara. It's going to be very yellow because of the egg yolks. And that's where the cream comes from. Cacio e pepe in Rome is going to be mostly the cheese that is making that.

Catelin:     Hey guys, we're having noodles for dinner tonight now I just decided.

Rich:          Yeah, sounds good. Get those carbs. Get those carbs, girl.

Catelin:     Honestly.

Rich:          So I want to roll back to the culture aspect of all of this. Because obviously you're getting immersed in the Dutch culture, like you said, and you had to do that for figuring out how to sell Bud Zero to Dutch people, which that's a whole cultural shift.

Catelin:     It's a heavy lift.

Rich:          It is a pretty heavy lift, but then you layered on top of that, you're the only American and all of these other students in your class, you're basically absorbed in 20 different cultures or however many. Was that really hard or was it just super fun and crazy?

Megan:     Honestly well, so at Masich University they have a different learning and teaching style. They use PBL, which is problem-based learning. So it's a lot more discussion based, which I personally love in when I'm in a class.

Catelin:     Sign me up.

Megan:     And so honestly, we had a TA, but they would never really teach us things. It was up to us to facilitate the lesson, facilitate the conversation, and they would direct where need be. So just the conversations in general that were happening were so, so intriguing just because everyone is coming at it from a different perspective, from where they grew up or where they're from. And the examples that people would bring to class, I was like, "Oh, I've never even heard of that before."

Catelin:     That's so cool.

Megan:     So in terms of marketing, especially just global marketing, having that kind of experience I feel like really aids a marketer's perception and ability to communicate messaging more efficiently.

Catelin:     It's that old thing like you don't know what you don't know until you're having a conversation with somebody who has an entirely different lived experience than you. You're like, "Oh, I have never considered that or thought of it that way." It just shifts everything a little bit.

Megan:     And to the point when you were asking if it was hard, I think that some aspects, just trying to get people to understand where you're coming from, just because they haven't personally experienced that. There was a few moments like that, but for the most part, everyone was really accepting and just intrigued into other people's ideas.

Rich:          So were you supposed to be the expert on Bud because you were the American?

Megan:     In my group, I think I was. They were like, "Okay, so what is this? Do you like it?" And honestly, I'm not a big Budweiser person.

Rich:          That's okay.

Megan:     I don't think this will ever reach anyone's ears at their marketing or any level.

Catelin:     You never know. We're going to go-

Rich:          You don't know who I know, we could make that happen.

Megan:     But I don't know, I prefer other choices. But in general, it's hard to relate to that as well.

Catelin:     Your plasticity as a marketer too, where it's like, "I don't particularly enjoy this product, but I can still find the benefit for someone who might."

Rich:          I mean, I just take it back to all those magazine articles that I wrote for a former client about gynecological issues in older women. Don't have those, don't know much about them, but I can certainly do research and do an interview-

Catelin:     Well, do you do now.

Rich:          ...all together.

Catelin:     You're an expert now.

Rich:          I know a whole lot more than I should, so yeah. But also, I mean that as a marketer, you do that. I mean, I worked on CRAFTSMAN Tools and I wasn't a mechanic or anything working on racing stuff. It's just one of those things where you're like, "Yeah, we just work on something you don't necessarily know until you start working on it." And don't worry about the Budweiser thing. I don't think anybody in Anheuser-Busch in Bev is going to be sponsoring our podcast anytime soon.

Megan:     No.

Rich:          I mean, and I think what our first episode, we used Pacífico as an example of a beer. So we went straight to Mexico and then Honduras and then came back around to it recently. Cool.

Catelin:     I also think that if we were looking for sponsorships, it would just be Busch Light. That's the only [inaudible 00:30:56]-

Rich:          That's what Jesse wants. I noticed there's a case of bottles up there now.

Megan:     That's a whole story.

Catelin:     It is how Riley [inaudible 00:31:03]-

Rich:          It's like now we could get the keg hooked up, but whatever.

Catelin:     CTA podcast after hours.

Rich:          So I'm looking at the time and I'm seeing that we're kind of getting through. I'm also looking at the questions we had and we just sort of covered almost everything. But I think the big one-

Catelin:     Yeah, I think this is let's put a finer point on it. If you had a tip, a single tip for a college student pursuing a career in marketing, what would you tell them?

Megan:     I mean, if you can, study abroad in somewhere good.

                  That does kind of international business and that is their focus. But in general, I think just in immersing yourself into as many different groups of people and picking their brains about how they view the world is so important. Just because I think it opens up your mind to how you can communicate different messaging. Because I mean, that's the main point of marketing, is communicating a message effectively. I mean, you would hope effectively. And now it's a point to debate whether that's what people normally do or is effective in today's marketing. But yeah, I think just immerse yourself in as many different types of people, groups of people. When you go out somewhere, if it's like you're traveling, pay attention to how the marketing is different or how those things kind of change. Even if it's in different parts of the US because you can see it here as well. But yeah, that would be my tip.

Catelin:     It's smart.

Rich:          Yeah, I think that's good. Even if you can't go abroad, just traveling the US in the south, in the northeast, in the west, and in California. And honestly even from California to Oregon to Washington, you're going to find a lot of differences in the marketing and the way they talk about it. Really, really cool. Yeah well, I feel like I'm the only one who didn't study abroad now, because Caitlin, you had your Guatemala before your Honduras. And Megan, you had your Netherlands and I just did a quick Mexico trip after I graduated from high school, but never did anything in college.

Catelin:     Didn't you do a May term? Did I make that up? I thought you did a May term.

Rich:          Not abroad.

Catelin:     What was that? No, it was... Okay.

Rich:          I've done a couple May terms. I did a couple of which is kind of how I got done early or would've gotten done early. But no, I've made up with international travel afterwards. I've done quite a bit. So that's been really good. Well, thank you, Megan, for joining. Yes?

Catelin:     It's different when you don't have the youthful exuberance.

Rich:          It is. Oh, yeah. I mean, and traveling even in my thirties is way different than traveling in my not thirties.

Megan:     No hostel days for you anymore?

Rich:          I did that. So it would've been... How old was I? It would've been the year before I turned 30, I was 29 was the last time I stayed in a hostel.

Catelin:     It was like, so the year that you were 29?

Rich:          But it was winter in England and Scotland, and so there were like nobody was there. So my friend and I had basically a private room. There were six bunk beds in there, but no one else was staying there because it's winter in Scotland. Who the hell travels to Scotland in the winter? But it was beautiful.

Catelin:     I bet.

Rich:          But yeah, no hostels for me.

Catelin:     It feels like it would be very peaceful.

Rich:          Hilton is really my sort of Europe hotel of choice, points are easy to use. There's a lot of them. But yeah, I digress.

Catelin:     This podcast brought to you by Hilton.

Rich:          And not by Budweiser or Bud Zero, because why bother?

                  Well, we're glad you bothered to show up today and came to join us.

Catelin:     We're glad you bothered to be with us at all.

Rich:          Yeah, it was really great.

Megan:     I think you're neat. That's all.

Rich:          We need to do a behind the scenes after show where Megan gets to trash talk us on what she thought of the episode.

Megan:     Hey, I did my homework right before I went to Denver. I had some downtime and I was like, "You know what? I'm going to listen to a few episodes, just to see what I know what it's like."

Rich:          It wanders a lot.

Catelin:     And she's like, "I'm never listening to that nonsense again. All they do is just talk about how great they are."

Rich:          All right. Well, on that note, we are great. You are also great, Megan. We're really happy you're here.

Megan:     Thank you.

Rich:          And it was great to hear about your experience abroad and hopefully it's helpful to somebody. If not, they could just enjoy the cocktail.

Megan:     Yeah, exactly.

Catelin:     Cheers.

Megan:     It is so good.

Rich:          All right, that's it for another episode of Cocktails, Tangents and Answers.

Catelin:     We hope it was as much fun to listen to as it was to make.

Rich:          You could find me on Twitter or Instagram at @richmackey. I try not to make it too difficult. It's just my name. And you can find our agency at Antidote_71. That's A-N-T-I-D-O-T-E, underscore 71 on Twitter and Instagram as well.

Catelin:     And you can find me at home sipping a craft cocktail prepared by my in-home bartender. It's my husband.

Rich:          We'll be back with another episode every other week and a whole new cocktail recipe. Plenty more tangents and of course answers to those pressing marketing questions.

Catelin:     And if you'd like to send us a question, you can go to CTApodcast.live to send us an email.

Rich:          Or you can call our hotline at 402 718 9971 and leave us a voicemail. Your questions might be used for future episodes of the podcast

Catelin:     For now, like and subscribe and tune in next time.