An Introduction to Cocktails, Tangents and Answers
In our inaugural episode, Catelin & Rich talk about what to expect from the podcast, and of course, we kick off this first season with a great tropical cocktail—the Mai Tai! (And you'll also learn about Catelin's own "My Ty.")
Mai Tai Recipe
Ingredients
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1 1/2 ounces white rum
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3/4 ounce orange curaçao
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3/4 ounce lime juice, freshly squeezed
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1/2 ounce orgeat
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1/2 ounce dark rum
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Garnish: lime wheel
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Garnish: mint sprig
This is one of the first tropical cocktails most people have, and can be extremely strong or weak like fruit punch. Your call. Once you have the above ready to go, just follow these 3 steps:
- Add the white rum, curaçao, lime juice and orgeat into a shaker with crushed ice and shake lightly (about 3 seconds).Pour into a double rocks glass.
- Float the dark rum over the top.
- Garnish with a lime wheel and mint sprig.
Of course the final step is to enjoy! (Maybe while you listen to this episode.)
Stream Now
Episode Transcript
Rich: [00:00:00] Hello and welcome to our inaugural podcast, I guess it would be right?
Catelin: We're so excited you're here!
Rich: So this is Cocktails, Tangents, and Answers. A podcast from Antidote 71, a marketing agency in the middle of the country. And I'm Rich Mackey. One of your hosts.
Catelin: I am Catelin Drey, you're other host.
Rich: Catelin is all of the personality and color commentary. And I am all of the brain dump and weird facts.
Catelin: All of the expertise comes from Rich, all of the inane questions and unbridled enthusiasm and curiosity comes from me.
Rich: So, I guess we should talk about like what this podcast is.
Catelin: What are we, what are we even doing here?
Rich: I honestly don't know some days, um, I mean, I guess there's not really a set agenda or topic for the [00:01:00] series. It's really more whatever we want to make it.
Catelin: Yeah, I think we do our best work when we're kind of allowed to, uh, fly free and pull on interesting, loose threads as we find them.
Rich: Yeah. So basically I think we're going to have a conversation today. It'll just be us, we'll introduce you to the podcast and you're going to be along for that ride. And then other episodes we'll have guests who come in and kind of share their expertise because if it was just us...
Catelin: You might get sick of it, or you might really, really love it.
Rich: Or we might get sick of it or really, really love it. Who knows. So I think
Catelin: This podcast is our oyster right now. We're ready!
Rich: It is. So I think, um, let's get into why cocktails, tangents and answers.
Catelin: Why indeed.
Rich: So let's start with cocktails. It is the first word, obviously.
Catelin: Yeah, I think it's first because it sets the stage. It's not necessarily the most [00:02:00] important, but it is the most fun part of what we're going to do at least in the name.
Rich: Yeah. So hopefully that tells you that this is going to be a little bit loose podcast.
Uh, there are cocktails happening, um, And, you know, we'll also just share recipes, we'll share our ideas about cocktails. You know, there might be something I love and Catelin hates.
Catelin: I think one thing that's really important to know about us as people and also Antidote 71 as an agency is that we are exceptionally motivated by food and beverage.
And so it was important for us to be authentic to that. And it was also important for us to be able to share our expertise in the realm of cocktails because it is wide ranging and it is, uh, we, uh, we hold very strong viewpoints.
Rich: We absolutely do. Um, and we hold individually strong viewpoints throughout the agency.
So we're about 13 people right now. We'll grow. We'll shrink, who knows. Uh, but [00:03:00] um, some people love very basic drinks, like, uh, a nice beer, maybe a bud light, others like things a little bit more complicated that might need to be crafted by a bartender.
Catelin: Well, and it's always, it's like the easiest way to get to know somebody is over a beverage because it's such a, an easy gateway into, tell me about why you like that or the best thing you ever had or what is it about bud light that you just can't get enough of?
Rich: I thought the easiest way to get to know somebody for you was to grill them about their food habits on their first day of work.
Catelin: But I am the exception and not the rule.
Rich: We do I mean, that said we do one of our interview questions is like, what's your favorite restaurant locally? Um, if you could make any dish, what would you make?
We don't really ask the cocktail questions, I guess in interviews we could. Um,
Catelin: you might be an interesting jumping off point. We do have right now we have a pretty young staff. So it might be interesting to see what the, what the youths are [00:04:00] drinking. Post-college
Rich: I feel like I just have old man drinks.
Catelin: I was like, I don't really want to revisit any of those choices for me. Like a cooler full of red, and then like whatever was left on the shelf that no one wants to drink that.
Rich: I did, um, in college I had a, uh, gosh, it was orange juice and raspberry liquer and I put them together and it tasted like, um, like a lifesaver. But then I did that once and I had so much of it.
I got sick and then I never drank it again, which was probably a really good thing.
Catelin: I've only, just recently been able to revisit tequila.
Rich: Wow.
Catelin: Yeah, probably within the last five years.
Rich: Wow. That is going to be a story for another time that actually. Kind of gets us to the second point, because I just did one right there with the college story and the alcohol uh it's to the tangents.
So, um, we will take you on a story journey. [00:05:00] We know where point a is, and we know where point B is. We just didn't tell you that there's 624 points in between there and also
Catelin: They're all very fun and interesting.
Rich: Offshoots like left and right. So the tangents are gonna happen. Um, we don't plan them. We don't write them. We don't decide what to tangent to go off on in an episode. It's just a word is sparked and we'll go down it and we'll try to come back around to our topic for you.
Catelin: We just want to see what happens.
Rich: But yeah, it's just really that, that discovery and that, um, I don't know that journey, I guess that we're always on. And we do that in the office. Um, somebody will find something online.
They'll share it in our chat tool. And then we will all be down this rabbit hole of, I believe a, one of the recent ones was a bear outfits for children. And then we got into tye-dye, bear outfits because producers, Zac who's sitting outside, uh, has a lot of tie-dye shirts. And if he has a baby, it has to get a bear outfit, which he does. You have to.
Catelin: Yeah, it's uh, it's. I didn't know [00:06:00] that when I became a parent, but you have to own at least one article of clothing. With ears in the first six months of your child's life, it's like an unspoken unwritten rule.
Rich: And I'm disappointed that the adults don't have bear onesies.
Catelin: That link you sent was horiffying
Rich: It was terrible. That woman in that weird tie-dye onesie
Catelin: One of the suggested activities for the onesie was grocery shopping, like a grown adult. Who's going to wear that costume into a grocery store.
Rich: I mean, I feel like all rules are, have been off the last couple of years. I'm going out of the house and grocery shopping.
Catelin: That was the first problem for me was like entering the grocery store as a parent of a small person. I will only ever drive to the parking lot and have somebody else put my groceries in the car. Now that drive up grocery shopping has changed my world
Rich: As a grown adult with no children, but who really doesn't like interacting with strangers. I am a hundred percent with you on that. [00:07:00] If I can get the free delivery and have them bring it to my house, like when I lived in Chicago, way, way back early two thousands, Peapod was a thing and it was a company that their whole thing was delivering groceries to you.
And they were trialing it in Chicago. They were, they were way too early, but I loved it. I lived on the second floor. They would carry everything. They would set it on your counter in the kitchen.
Catelin: So it's rich as a 30 year old hip young guy in Chicago. And then all of the grannys who maybe know how to use the internet, having their groceries delivered, "I'm in a third floor, walk up and I can't carry my half gallon of milk".
Rich: "My grandson ordered these for me I hope he did it right". Pretty much. And now I'm like aging toward the grandparent. Uh, but with no children, no grandkids.
Catelin: Very hip
Rich: I try to be so again, more tangents. So hopefully you've got the tangent idea.
Catelin: Did you get the idea?
Rich: Um, we're going to jump [00:08:00] in a little bit and pull back to kind of our notes, uh, and tell you a little bit about us. So, you know, why should you listen to us? Aside from we're fascinating and wonderful and you'll get booze, stories and recipes. Um, we do know a bit about marketing. We know a bit about, uh, design and those things, and more importantly, our staff and the people we'll bring in as guests will be experts to go deep into specific areas of marketing.
Catelin: That's where the real magic is gonna happen.
Rich: Yeah. So I have been doing marketing for longer than I care to admit. Um, I thought it was really cool when it was like 20 years that I've been doing marketing and went, that's a really great number. And now the number just keeps getting bigger.
Catelin: Thats better than the alternative.
Rich: It is. It is, I guess it's much better to be continuing to grow old, then done. But I, um, I started my career in Sioux city, Iowa, where we, we actually have an office there as well as Omaha, Nebraska. At a small agency, worked there for a few years, uh, came to Omaha. I sold TV ads. [00:09:00] So shout out to anybody who remembers me from my KPTM days back in Omaha in the nineties, uh, realized after one year that I just really hated cold calling and hated...
Catelin: Oh what a nightmare!
Rich: door to door sales. Oh yeah. Just go into like.
Catelin: I have hives. I have hives!
Rich: Like my job was to go into like a hair salon and find the owner and be like, Hey, would you like to advertise on TV? Here's some packages. Uh, and the sad thing is I was really good at it and I made good money, but I was just like sick every day.
Catelin: Sad and horrible!
Rich: Yeah, I'm not wired for that.
Catelin: Sales quotas are... ah nope.
Rich: So I jumped back into advertising with an agency here in Omaha and then made the big break, went to Chicago at a little agency. You may have heard...
Catelin: Where you had all your groceries delivered.
Rich: I did have my groceries delivered there. Yes. So a little agency called Ogilvy and Mather, uh, and worked there for a few years, um, in the early two thousands as everything was spiraling downward in the ad industry [00:10:00] playoffs and things.
I learned that it's not great to be the one left after everybody else has been laid off because they just pile more work on you. So I bolted went to another agency, um, in Chicago and worked on propel fitness water, which was a Gatorade brand in the early days, a wireless company. And then did the client side marketing there at the wireless company. And that did marketing for a financial firm. And then in 2016 bought into this agency called antidote 71.
Catelin: This little dream. The little engine that could!
Rich: I know. And so here, I'm the, uh, the fearless leader or the benevolent dictator, however you want to call it.
Catelin: Well, I mean, if you're the benevolent dictator, I think you decide what the title is.
Rich: See, there's the problem. I'm so benevolent that I let others decide my title.
Catelin: I don't know, I just am a giver.
Rich: So that's a little about me. I've got a lot of traditional advertising background. I jumped into digital ad Ogilvy really early on in the early two thousands. Like there was no Facebook. [00:11:00] Um, I don't think there was a Twitter. I should know that because I teach a class on it.
Catelin: Wasn't Facebook first?
Rich: Um, No LinkedIn was first actually.
Catelin: Well yeah. LinkedIn was like the younger sister up two of them right?
Rich: Um, so did some of the like banner ads were really popular. It was like the only thing we had Google was kind of coming up. So did some of that and Ogilvy one. Um, for a few brands, um, and then just really loved it.
So as I got into like the work I did at cricket wireless, like got us onto Facebook business pages that just come out and we're like, oh, we should do this. And we did. And like dove into that and got into all that digital stuff. And that's kind of where my career has shifted, like since. And I've been really good at shifting companies from old school analog to digital.
And like, um, at OPL we'd dumped all of the paper marketing that we did no direct mail anymore, by the time, you know, five years went by, it was fascinating. And so here we really help clients activate with that. Um, so I know a lot about, I know a little about a [00:12:00] lot and a lot about a few areas of it, but we fill out the team with other people.
So that's like a really long ramble about me. Um, so what about you Catelin? Like I know your background, but tell all these people...
Catelin: I know, I'm feeling a pressure to like. Button this up...
Rich: Just be different. Like don't, don't ramble as much as, oh my God.
Catelin: Yeah. I, one thing that you should know about me is that I really hate talking about myself.
I would so much rather like get to the really like meaty parts of other people. Like what makes you tick? What's exciting to you? But throughout my very wide ranging professional life. I have done everything from mortgage loan processing to water bill payments, to in-home social work. So at the heart of all of that has been, how do I help people? How do I encourage other people in a way that is [00:13:00] meaningful to them and how do I help them meet their goals?
Rich: Yeah. And I think one of my favorite things about you and that really speaks to that core is the thing I've heard you say the most is when somebody will share like one comment, your response isn't "oh, me too" and you Trump them. Your response is always "tell me more about that".
Catelin: That is my my number one, like networking, getting to know you tip. Is the... The golden question is, tell me more about that. They just like, it sets people at ease. It shows them you're interested and it helps you connect in such a more meaningful way, because like when you meet someone and you're like, oh, what do you do?
It's so boring, like who wants... "Well, if you really want to know, I sit at a desk and I answer emails most of the time", like riveting stuff. But if somebody, like you ask them, like, what is it about your job that you love? And they say, "I don't know. I really love helping customers meet their SEO goals". And you say, [00:14:00] "tell me more about that". It's like, you're getting, you're getting to learn about what it is that makes SEO valuable, what it is about this person that makes them believe that it's like, it just breaks down. People's like innate hesitance to talk to a stranger.
Rich: I think the other thing that I like about it is if they were just trying to give you an answer to like shut you down and get away from you when you asked that it's the perfect bullshit meter, because you'll get people who look at you like deer in headlights and like "oh, you actually want to talk to me you weren't just being polite". And some people that's terrifying too. And other people are like, oh, that's so awesome. I thought this was just a cheesy, like, get to know you thing, but yeah, let's talk. And then maybe you become friends.
Catelin: The thing that I would love to hear about is how to remember people's names.
So like if I'm going to Dole out networking tips, because, so I will remember the answer to tell me more about that. I'll remember your dog's name. I'll remember your favorite [00:15:00] food. I'll remember where you went to vacation 10 years. I will not remember your name to save my life. It's so embarrassing.
Rich: This is great. You and I can't network together because we'll talk about all the ways... And there's zero names. I honestly think the only way to do that is like what you see in like, uh, like a TV show, like Veep or like, Well, no. When somebody following you around whispering in your ear, this is Catelin. She works antidote 71. She's a project manager and account executive
Catelin: and I just spring into action.
Rich: and you're like: "Oh Catelin, It's so great!"
Uh, so I feel like that's it. I know that there is some technology that they've been working on where like you would have, your glasses would look like normal glasses and they'd be tied to your phone. And then your glasses would see the face...
Catelin: Your glasses are going to tell you what people's names are?
Rich: The phone would go out to the internet, look them up, and then into your ears, Siri, or [00:16:00] somebody would read like, it's really creepy right? But also kind of helpful?
Catelin: So, like, I always go down the slippery slope of like that type of facial recognition is really scary. Like I don't like doom and gloom. That's not what this is about, but it can like the flip side of it. I was always like, how does that go haywire? How does that go wrong?
Rich: Well, and I feel like that's our industry. Like, it's like, that is so cool for marketing and so terrifying for me as a (consumer).
Catelin: As a consumer!
Rich: that's everything in what we do. Yeah. Oh, so crazy. So crazy. So some good tangents in there while we talked about tangents. That's good too.
Catelin: We're already accomplishing our goals and it's been 10 minutes.
Rich: So yeah. So I think on the tangents piece, um, a really good thing to point out. Like we believe a great idea can come from anywhere and sometimes a really random, stupid thing we're talking about in the office, like pays off for a client in some way or pays off for us in some way. [00:17:00] So finding that little thing and then just like, you know, continuing to unravel it and unravel it until you've got just a pile of yarn in the corner and then reshaping it.
What can you do with that pile of yarn? Exactly.
Catelin: I love a good craft.
Rich: So fantastic. Hmm crafty. I love a craft cocktail.
Catelin: Yes. We didn't actually cover what our cocktail is for today.
Rich: Oh we didnt. We were supposed to do that...
So yes, every day we'll have a cocktail and it will always be different. Some will be kind of average and normal and you're like, oh yeah, I know what that is. So we'll be a little further out there and you may learn something. And we'll post the cocktail recipe in our comments, unless we get shut down for peddling booze.
Catelin: Is that a concern?
Rich: Um, I don't know. I don't know because like maybe if Google, like we, we run an ad and Google like links over there and they see that we've got a cocktail recipe...
Catelin: We're not selling it though.
Rich: No, [00:18:00] we're not. We're just enabling. I think that's okay. We'll have to ask Christian.
Catelin: Do we have to have a disclaimer that like "you must be 21 to consume this podcast"?
Rich: I don't think so. The podcast is perfect for anybody. So what is our drink?
Catelin: Please drink responsibly.
Rich: What is our drink today?
Catelin: Well, as a little segue into like more about me, uh, I opted for a Mai Tai today. My husband's name is Tyrel and he has become a craft cocktail officianado. And I remember the first time he made us mai tais at home.
I obviously turned it into a pun because it's a perfect opportunity. So it was, I was having mai tais with my Ty. Yes, exactly. So hashtag list and all of that, but it was, I know it's so gross. It's so gross and so annoying, but the mai tai is like perfectly refreshing and citrusy and lovely. And it's like a little bit different because the orgeat [00:19:00] adds just another...
Rich: I'm sorry, the orgeat?
Catelin: it is, uh, it is almond syrup. So like, um, I had to think about it, but we got so desperate in 2020 that we made our own. So I was, I was pregnant at the time and Tyrel was like "I'm out of orgeat" And I was like "well, this is a crisis". And I hit my eye roll because we were the only people that we were seeing at the time I had to be very delicate, but we, on our next grocery order that they put in the trunk of my car, I ordered slivered almonds.
And it's just like almond...
Rich: You just soak them in alcohol?
Catelin: no, not in alcohol. It's um. The steps are escaping me, but I remember like cheesecloth and boiling water, lots of sugar.
Rich: So like a simple syrup, but with almonds being a part [00:20:00] of it?
Catelin: That's what it is. Yeah. But it's like, have you ever had like a Dutch letter or an almond Patty?
Rich: Yeah, yeah yeah
Catelin: Yeah. So it's like that just in your...
Just that delicious, like almond sweet.
Rich: Okay. So I have to back up and say, when you said, you know, in 2020, we got desperate and I did not think you were going to say you made your own. I thought you were going to go to, we rated the almond extract from my baking cupboard and use that. And I was thinking that sounds terrible.
Catelin: No. Cause two drops of almond extract goes very far. And this was like, I can't remember how many packages of slivered almonds we ordered, but it was many. And then. I'm just remembering like the Civ and cheesecloth and like wringing out the, the liquid from the soaked almonds and the sugar.
Rich: All right. So a good mai tai has orgeat, what else is in this thing?
Catelin: Uh, there... rum rum. So if we were drinking this at my house, it would be [00:21:00] over-proof rum, uh, I'm getting some, some mystery hand signals.
Rich: Yeah, we're at 20 minutes. So this is what you also get. You just get us with hand signals from producer Zac.
Catelin: We we're worried that this wasn't gonna be long enough, but now here we are.
Rich: So we'll finish the cocktail, we'll finish the cocktail and then we'll get to the answers piece. So, uh, so rum, orgeat...
Catelin: Rum, orgeat, lime, and I think theres simple. There, ya know... Like anything, there are a variety of recipes, but I would encourage you to find one that speaks to.
Rich: So my problem with mai tais, and then we'll move on, is I had my first ones on like an airplane to Hawaii.
Catelin: That is never the way to experience a cocktail!
Rich: It was overly sweet and ridiculously acidic. Nobody should serve that much acid on an airplane.
Catelin: That's giving me heart burn just thinking about it.
Rich: So I'll [00:22:00] have to like, uh, next time we're at your place. I'll have to have your Ty make me mai tai.
Catelin: And you will not be sorry.
Rich: All right. So, uh, we're telling, we're learning that we need to keep moving. So answers, cocktails we covered, and then we covered it again. We circle back around tangents. We've definitely nailed that one this time. Um, so answers. So this is a marketing podcast, specifically, mostly digital marketing. We'll get into some other areas and some broader design and broader marketing pieces as well. So we talked a little bit about my expertise. I run the agencies.
So I'm the president CEO of benevolent dictator or whatever you want to call me. Um, I'm also the CFO, the CIO, the CTO, the CIO, like pretty much all of it. Um, my background is really in account service and then in those digital marketing strategies and executions and those types of things. And so I'll jump in on that sometimes. Uh, we'll probably do it one where Caitlin interviews me about something specific. Um, and then...
Catelin: that would be like a [00:23:00] two hour...
Rich: We'll have to make that like a four-part series of us just rambling cocktails will be part one tangents part two, tangents part three, and then answers part four. Um, and so I'll be doing some of the interviewing Caitlyn will also be doing some of the interviewing, um, she's got the personality, the enthusiasm. And just...
Catelin: like I said, unbridled, enthusiasm and curiosity. That's all I'm bringing to this table.
Rich: Yeah. I think when we said, I said, "Hey, I think we need to do a podcast as an agency. We've got some clients who are going to start doing them". Um, Caitlin's just immediately said, "do you need a host? I can be at host. I love the sound of my voice". That's wonderful.
Catelin: Somebody else said that
Rich: Somebody else said that, you've got a voice for radio.
Catelin: I think it's face for radio, a face for radio, like the phrase
Rich: but I think you've got to have the voice as well. Like they both have to be there. So I think that's really kind of it. So we'll have ideally, an episode a week, you can kind of watch this space wherever you are. I did see, [00:24:00] um, one of the NPR people, I think it was Ari Shapiro actually posted "when can we stop saying: Wherever you get your podcasts".
Catelin: Just like on the internet.
Rich: And I'm like, if you're listening to this, you got it from somewhere. The next one will be right where this one is like a week from now. So just whatever that is.
Catelin: Maybe it's like the it's like the, um, like the Walter Cronkite, like nobody wanted to come up with their own sign off. So they're like, oh, that sounds good. And is a nice way to button this up and put a, like, put a ribbon on it and be done.
Rich: I could really date myself and pull a: "And now, you know, the rest of this story".
Catelin: Um, Paul Harvey!
Rich: Yes, Paul Harvey!
Catelin: I frickin' love Paul Harvey.
We do not have time for that.
Rich: No we don't. We're getting a wrap-up signal from producer zac, who's actually going to be in an episode coming up here real soon. He does content management for us as well and content strategy. So you'll hear about that from him at some point, this season.
So, all right, that's it. Uh, I'm rich Mackey. You can find me on all the [00:25:00] social media. You can find us on our website at antidote71.com
Catelin: and Catelin Drey.
And the same for me. You can find me on our website or on the internet somewhere.
Rich: Yeah. So thanks for coming along for the ride. The next ones should be a little bit more structured, but also still loose. And we'll see you next time. Thanks.
Catelin: Thanks so much!