Our interns are done for the summer and we decided to get their final thoughts. They did a fantastic job with everything and we are thankful that we got to watch them learn and grow! Listen in to get their final perspectives.
Ingredients
Another gin drink means another win for gin-lovers like Catelin! This classic cocktail is easy for anyone to make and even easier to enjoy.
Rich: Do you want to kick us off?
Catelin: I think we're kicked off.
Rich: Oh wait, did I just kick us off?
Catelin: I was like, "I think we did it."
Rich: I think I just did so welcome. Yeah, I just didn't want the intro to be the same anymore. I guess this one is different than all of the others.
Catelin: It is different.
Rich: Most certainly, so hi Catelin.
Catelin: Hi. It’s so great to be here. I feel like every opening I’m like, “I’m really excited.” I need to come up with some different... I need to thesaurus some words for excited.
Rich: That would be a good one, yeah, and that would keep us a little bit more variability. This will probably be the most unique opening ever.
Catelin: Is it your turn or mine. I don't know.
Rich: It's good to be back, it's good to see you. We've got an interesting episode today that I know-
Catelin: Yes. With our little sweet babies. They're all done and grown up and they're going back to college.
Rich: Oh yeah, absolutely. Our interns have wrapped up today so by the time this airs... I believe we're going to try to get this one out quickly, so I think it would be about a week from now. About a week ago, when you hear this, our interns wrapped up and they have been removed from the HR system and they're-
Catelin: We're sad to see them go. I guess I am sad to see them go, but also-
Rich: I am too. They did some really good work.
Catelin: They did such good work. They did such good work. I am very excited to order many of Emma's t-shirt designs.
Rich: Right, and I'm excited to get our sales tax issues with a distributor who does sales tax in 40 states worked out so that we can actually open the store and sell t-shirts.
Catelin: We also learned about E-commerce and the regulations surrounding national sales.
Rich: Yeah. It's about having a nexus, and when you drop ship from a location you're subject to the sales tax that the drop shipper is subject to.
Catelin: That the recipient is subject to, right?
Rich: Well, it's where the drop shipper has nexus versus where you have nexus. We have nexus in Iowa and Nebraska because we have physical locations in those places.
Catelin: What is nexus?
Rich: Well, it's a great question. It's a very broad term. It means you have some sort of a relationship in that state. You could store something there, you could have an employee there, you could have an office there...
Catelin: A physical representation of your business in some capacity?
Rich: Well, it used to be a physical representation of your business and it has become, in some states, it's become a virtual representation of your business also counts and so, when you have a nationwide distributor and they're drop shipping; not shipping directly to you and then you ship off or if they're storing-
Catelin: Right, because if you're the intermediary then it's just cost of goods sold and you wouldn't have to pay sales tax to the manufacturer, but if they're shipping on your behalf, then...
Rich: If they're shipping on your behalf, there's two things that can happen and I'm working out which is best for us. One, they can tax us for it in the state where it's going to. So if you bought something in Massachusetts, they charge us Massachusetts sales tax for it. We collect the payment from the customer, but we cannot charge sales tax to that customer because we're not actually passing it through. Now, we could mark it up a dollar or have a shipping and handling fee or whatever. That's an option and then they pay all the taxes. I think that's okay.
Catelin: That seems easy.
Rich: Or we can get a sales tax permit and a reseller license in each of those states. I see that look on your face with your eyes wide. There's actually an E-commerce system that would collect it all and pay it all for us. We wouldn't have to even worry about it, but then they would never charge us sales tax on it but we would charge the customer and then pass that customer sales tax on, so we would adopt the nexus from our drop shipper. You can see where my head has been spinning and why this store is not up and live yet.
Catelin: It's not. Wow.
Rich: But anyway, that was a hell of a tangent.
Catelin: What an interesting thing. I think one of the things I love about this is that either I get to talk about a thing that I know some about or I get to learn something that I would never ever have a reason to know.
Rich: I'm learning too, which is why I sent an email to our CPA and their sales tax team is going to look into this and see what the best route is, because again, if we can just let the drop shipper charge us sales tax and we can just accommodate that in the price, mark everything up a dollar or whatever, then super easy. We just do our sales tax permits for Iowa and Nebraska and we're good to go. We pay sales tax there if we sold a physical good anyway, and then we can turn it on almost immediately. If we have to get permits in each state, then that becomes a nightmare. Except there's like five or six states that don't charge sales tax on clothing, so because that's all we're selling, we wouldn't have to do it in those states.
Catelin: Minnesota is one of them I think.
Rich: Yeah, Minnesota's one. Either Oregon or Washington, I don't remember which, and some east coasty things. Now everybody's bored to death and they're probably asleep at the wheel...
Catelin: I just want to go back and talk to the framers of the constitution about-
Rich: About sales?
Catelin: Interstate commerce.
Rich: Oh, interstate commerce.
Catelin: It's such a nightmare.
Rich: It is. It is definitely.
Catelin: It is a wonder that we have not reverted to a barter system. I have six cucumbers and I need a pint of ale. May we trade?
Rich: Well, then you've got to look at the cucumber futures to see if they're worth one pint of ale.
Catelin: I can't. I cannot. I cannot
Rich: I know, I know. Let's get back to the interns because what I do love about everything they did is we have social posts drafted and ready to go.
Catelin: Yes.
Rich: We've got SEO strategy drafted and ready to go.
Catelin: Zach said his retargeting ads we're running and I was like, I'm ready to be re-targeted. I don't know. Maybe they're not-
Rich: I mean, the retargeting ads shouldn't be running because... Well, there's nobody going to the site so they could be on, I guess, and no one's going to get them. But yeah, all the ads are created, all the creative is done. The site is called 71 Shirts and we've actually got 71 shirts. When Emma got... She went design crazy.
Catelin: I know.
Rich: And when she got into it, I counted them and I'm like, "Emma, we're at 68. Could you just do three more?"
Catelin: And she was like, "I already did."
Rich: And she's like, "I have 10 that I haven't put up." I'm like, "Just pick three and we'll move forward." They just did a great job and I think one of the things you talked to them about is, did they learn anything? What did they think about it? I've talked to them as well. Both of them seem to have really enjoyed the internship and I think we'll learn whether or not they would come back and work here or come back for another internship.
Catelin: They have both already said they would come back to which I-
Rich: I wasn't going to give away the spoilers. Spoiler alert.
Catelin: Well, that's fair. I just want to go on record and say we will hold you to that.
Rich: Honestly, from my perspective, I would hire either of them. If we had an open position for either of those things, and I know Jesse had said the same thing about Emma with her creative, and the variation of designs she did...
Catelin: There is also something. They fit in, which is... You can't screen for that. There's not an interview question that says, are you going to just insert yourself in a way that doesn't feel intrusive? Are you going to just tag along and come with us to lunch? Are you going to play along when we start having inside jokes and participate? You don't know.
Rich: Yeah, or are you just going to be a weird outsider like we're all going to be like, uh, and you're uncomfortable, we're uncomfortable...
Catelin: Yeah.
Rich: Luckily we haven't had that, which is great. We did five years ago. We had an intern. We actually fired an intern because they just weren't doing any work. They weren't doing anything. Can you believe it? I'm also noticing that we're probably about ready to get rolling into the episode and we have not talked cocktail and so...
Catelin: What a nightmare.
Rich: We ran out of mocktails because really the Shirley Temple is the only one [inaudible 00:08:12]
Catelin: That's the only one.
Rich: It's the only one worth anything. Everything else is pour fake non-alcoholic alcohol into it.,And we just don't do that. So, this one is an easy one and it's Gin based.
Catelin: Yes.
Rich: It is a Greyhound.
Catelin: Yes. It's been, for me personally, the summer of salad and also the summer of really loving grapefruit.
Rich: It's really just two ingredients, right?
Catelin: Gin and grapefruit.
Rich: Yep. You can mix those in whatever proportion you want.
Catelin: You can [inaudible 00:08:47] heavy hand.
Rich: There are proportions in recipes that will put something down there. It probably should be more grapefruit juice than it is gin, but I mean-
Catelin: Go with what you feel.
Rich: Depending on the day, I was just talking to... I think I was talking to Zach about it earlier, but there was a bar in Dallas that had infused pineapple vodka in a big giant vat with a spigot on it. You did not need to mix that with anything because it was like pineapple juice that was boozy and that was dangerous. You could just do a glass of gin with a splash of grapefruit if you want, you could just introduce it to the grapefruit or maybe drop a peel in if you really love to, but I think...
Catelin: A hint.
Rich: Just a hint. The that's what I always say about La Croix. The guava La Croix is like they took the sparkling water and they introduced it to a guava but they never actually connected it any way.
Catelin: It's a bad networking event.
Rich: Yes. Yes.
Catelin: They traded business cards and that was the end.
Rich: They did, and that's the amount of flavor you get out. Though some of the new La Croix flavors have been better, but typically they're just so light on flavors.
Catelin: There was a meme going around that was like, it's like somebody thought of a strawberry and that's the flavor that ended up in the can.
Rich: Yes. While I was putting sparkling water in the can...
Catelin: It looked like a staticy lemon lime. Like you can't quite get there.
Rich: Yeah. They just don't quite fit. Not that Limon that you get from... Is that Sprite that was the Limon thing way back in the day? I'm dating myself, aren't I?
Catelin: You say Limon and I think of Lemon-Lyman from The West Wing, which is entirely different.
Rich: Oh, completely different and now we're onto Liz Lemon from 30 rock.
Catelin: This has just devolved into a shitty word cloud. Let's hear from the interns.
Rich: All right. We'll leave it at there and enjoy your Greyhound.
Catelin: Cheers to that.
Rich: Cheers.
Catelin: Welcome back to Cocktails Tangents & Answers. I am Caitlin. I'm here with intern Zach. Z-A-C-H if you're keeping score at home. It's an important internal distinction for us to make. We have two Zachs until 2:30 PM today, and then we're back down to one. Thanks for coming back for part two Zach, with an H.
Zachary: No problem.
Catelin: I would really love for people to go back and just take a peek through or listen to intern view part one where we get to learn all about you. This is kind of our wrap up. I'm curious how you felt like your internship went. This is also a secret exit interview. We're going to grade ourselves based on your answers.
Zachary: I thought it went great. It was a lot of workload that didn't really... I mean, I could get all of it done and not feel too overwhelmed with it so that's always a good thing. Just learning a bunch of new stuff about everything and growing.
Catelin: Did you feel like it will be applicable in the future? Like you've gained some skills?
Zachary: I think it was a good thing to have just based on the class load that I have next semester in school. Just being able to learn basic stuff already and then taking that into a class always helps.
Catelin: Practical application. You're going to be an expert. You'll be able to charge people tutoring fees or something. I don't know what your side hustle is. What kind of skills... I guess let's back up a little bit. If you haven't listened to part one, we had kind of a different internship program than what is normal for companies, either our size or in general. Zach and our design intern, Emma, were in charge of building and promoting and running an online retail shop via... E-commerce. That's the word I'm looking for. An E-commerce t-shirt shop. Knowing all that, talk to me about skills you think you gained or improved upon, out of curiosity.
Zachary: I think I improved on knowing what SEO is in general, knowing how to do SEO and SEO is a big, big thing to have and know for a website like that. Also, promoting wise, how much detail and stuff goes into promoting a website just based online.
Catelin: We would always laugh because you're so focused, super quiet during the day, but we would always hear you over there typing furiously and we're like, "Whatever he's working on is very important and interesting," because just keyboard warrior. It was crazy. Was there a part that you loved the most?
Zachary: I liked working with so many with a different creative mindset than me and just collabing with Emma. Doing a website with someone who has a different mind than me is something that I thought that was really cool. It worked really well.
Catelin: Yeah. You bounced ideas and stuff off of each other. That's cool. Do you notice anything or have you considered other... What will you consider differently when you look for jobs now, after working here? Anything? You still have some time to decide too.
Zachary: I think, when I'm looking for a job in the future, just looking to see if they mush together like people do here. You can just ask anybody questions, like I said in part one. You can ask anybody a question here and they probably will know the answer to it. It doesn't matter what they're doing here. You can just ask anyone a question about anything and...
Catelin: I like the idea of mushing together with your coworkers in a HR appropriate way. Sorry. Have your post-college plans changed? We're still potentially looking at coaching? We want to be able to coach, we want to be able to...
Zachary: Either that or trying to go into something on the sports marketing side of things. I'm a big sports guy and always have been so I think-
Catelin: We recently learned you're a huge Dodgers fan, which we should have led with given that you're SEO guide is also a major Dodgers fan. Christian came back and he's like, "I just learned this," and I was like, "Well that was a missed opportunity."
Zachary: I just learned he was a Dodgers fan too, yesterday.
Catelin: Right? I know. I have spent all summer sending Christian the three headlines about Dodgers that I've read, where I'm like, "Did you see this?" And of course he did, but I'm like, "Do you want to talk about it? Because I would love to talk to you about baseball, which is a thing that I know nothing about but if it means we're better friends, then here you go."
Catelin: Have your plans changed at all since completing?
Zachary: I don't think so.
Catelin: I guess in 20 minutes you're complete. Yeah. Do you think this will be valuable? What are you going to take from this to your next stop?
Zachary: Just having an internship and just getting real world and experience rather than just sitting through classes and learning that way. I think getting out in the real world and doing internships is a big help to anybody who wants to do something in life.
Catelin: Would you come back?
Zachary: I would.
Catelin: If we were like, "Hey, we have a position open. You're perfect for it." You'd be like, "Cool. Sign me up"?
Zachary: Yeah. I probably would.
Catelin: Yes. We're cool and young. Let's do it all. All right. Did you feel like you got what you wanted from this or were you surprised by how things shook out?
Zachary: I got what I wanted. Just learning a bunch of new and different things. The first part, it was just doing research and stuff and then the last little part was just going out there and actually doing all the stuff, which helps a lot. So I think I did get what I wanted out of it.
Catelin: How long until I can buy a shirt from 71shirts.com?
Zachary: Not too long, I don't think.
Catelin: Okay. I'm going to bother you on LinkedIn and be like, "Hey, it's time. I'm buying my shirt. Here's how I found the website."
Zachary: Okay.
Catelin: Okay. Cool.
Zachary: Just launched some retargeting ads, so we'll see.
Catelin: I hope I get served so many retargeting ads. I'm going to go test out your work as soon as we're done here. 71shirts.com and then I'm going to wait and see how long it takes for me to be re-targeted. The internet knows everything about me so I'm going to guess it won't be very long.
Catelin: All right. Thank you again. It was really lovely getting to know you and we're appreciative of the work that you did.
Zachary: I appreciate it.
Catelin: Thanks.
Catelin: We are back with intern Emma. If you have not listened to intern view part one, you should go back. There's really good stuff in there and you'll have better context for what we're about to do. Emma, how has it gone as intern?
Emma: It has gone great. I have loved every minute of it.
Catelin: Every minute?
Emma: Just about, yeah.
Catelin: I was like, "Every minute is a big commitment." That's a big commitment. Tell me what you feel like you've gained or improved upon from hanging out with us for an entire summer.
Emma: So many things. I've been having to write papers for my course that I'm taking with this and, the things that I am writing, I'm like, "Whoa, that's a lot more than I thought I was going to learn this summer." It was like every single thing that I did, I got something out of, which-
Catelin: Is there a favorite?
Emma: I think social media. Not just because Zack is sitting here. I was kind of surprised that I enjoyed writing copy for social media.
Catelin: That's spectacular.
Emma: But also the designing aspect of it too was really fun because you get to make cute little mock ups and stuff.
Catelin: People are going to be banging down your door if they find out that you like writing for social, because it's such a tough skill to develop and if you are halfway there by being like, "I enjoy this," it makes it so much easier to improve upon and be better at.
Catelin: That is really surprising and spectacular. I remember there was a day you and Desie were working on something and she went to show you how to use a tool for... I don't speak in design super fluently or at all. She was like, "Wait, you already know how to do that," and I was like, "This is so cool. She's a little baby designer all grown up." It was just really great. Really importantly, the part that you enjoyed the most?
Emma: I don't know. That's a hard one.
Catelin: I know. I have an answer on your behalf, but it's not necessarily related to the actual work. I think it's just Monday lunches at Fiesta Charra's.
Emma: I think that was the most I gained out of this, was finding a new favorite Mexican restaurant in Sioux City
Catelin: New favorite Mexican. I know I went back and I was like, "We have supplanted the favorite Mexican restaurant." We've made inroads. I am excited for you to take your mom there, is what I need you to... I need a post internship book report about your return trip to Fiesta Charra with your mom.
Emma: Okay. I can do that.
Catelin: Yeah. Good. If I don't hear it, I'll just be like, "Dawn. Hi. It's nice to chat with you. How did you feel about the chips and salsa?"
Emma: I know she's probably listening to this too, because she listened to the first one. Mom, you got to hold me accountable.
Catelin: Hi Dawn. Your daughter is so great. I feel like I knew that you were lovely and wonderful, but it was just so fun to be grownups with you. It was really cool.
Emma: Yeah.
Catelin: Did we cover that? I knew you before this, in our last episode?
Emma: I don't think so.
Catelin: Okay. I worked/volunteered with Emma's mom previously and then also got to take her senior pictures, so when I saw her name on the calendar as our intern I was like, "Certainly she can't be that old," and then you are and you're also still fantastic, but it was so great.
Emma: Thank you.
Catelin: Back to business here. Do you feel like your post-college plans have changed after working here? Do you feel like you're headed in the right direction?
Emma: I feel like I'm still headed in the direction I thought before but I also feel like I've expanded. Now maybe I can do more of social media and stuff like that because that part of my skillset was not as confident. Coming into this and being able to actually do it, I feel more confident with it, that I can go that direction too if I wanted to.
Catelin: Just more tools in your tool belt.
Emma: Exactly. Yep.
Catelin: Awesome. That's so awesome. Do you notice anything about either your skillset outside of... I guess we've kind of covered that. Outside of social media or things that you'll be looking for in a potential employer after being here?
Emma: Okay. I have to tell a story.
Catelin: I have full body goosebumps anticipating. I can't wait. Okay.
Emma: Okay. La Fiesta Charra, me and my boyfriend went there, and obviously I was like, "Okay, I ate there with work. Got to take you here. It's good." As we're walking in I'm like, "You know, this was just not a fair first professional internship because it set the bar really high for all these other places."
Catelin: Yes. There may have also been a moment where I was like, "Maybe you should just stay here with us forever and never go back to college." I'm sorry, Dawn. Don't listen to that part. She's so great, we want to keep her forever. That is probably true. I think personally I have benefited, that all of the other... Not all. Most of the other places that I've worked before this have been terrible, so the bar was really low for me, and then it was like, "Wait, this is spectacular." I'm nervous but I'm also excited to see what comes for you.
Emma: I definitely just hope a lot of companies are starting to move in the direction that Antidote is. Very chill, laid back, but get your work done. Very supportive environment, which I really... I noticed that and I really appreciated it and the teamwork that goes into everything. I see that too.
Catelin: I do also think there's something to be said for your attitude of just jumping in with both feet and being willing to hang with all of the olds, where it's like, "Yeah, I'll go to lunch with you. That seems fine," and not being nervous or shy to just... Insert is the wrong word, but just join the group. Your enthusiasm warrants noting, and we've appreciated that for sure. Do you feel like you got what you wanted from this?
Emma: And more. Yes.
Catelin: I teed her up, and she... That was perfect. Yeah. is there a thing you're most proud of?
Emma: I'm wearing one of my shirts today.
Catelin: I know. I was like, "I want your shirt so badly." I told Zach I was going to go visit the website because I want to test his retargeting but also I really want all the wildflower shirts. They're so cute.
Emma: We got the samples in for the five of us, or however many people ordered them, and looking at them I was like, "Whoa, I did that."
Catelin: I did that, and that, and that, and that. So cool.
Emma: Yeah. It's just super rewarding to see it in front of you. They almost look better in person than they did on the website. Just saying.
Catelin: Yeah, I am very excited to twin with you soon.
Emma:
Send me pictures when you get yours.
Catelin: I will.
Emma: Tag me.
Catelin: Yes. I love it. It's just been such a joy. Thank you so much.
Emma: Thank you so much.
Rich: That's it for another episode of Cocktails Tangents & Answers.
Catelin: We hope it was as much fun to listen to as it was to make.
Rich: You can 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_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.