This transcript is auto-generated and may contain spelling and grammatical errors.
Tyler Jorgenson (00:01.999)
Welcome out to Biz Ninja Entrepreneur Radio. I’m your host, Tyler Jorgensen, and today we get to sit down with somebody who has fought to innovate in the wine industry, which is traditionally not an industry free and super welcoming to women, which I find fascinating. We’re gonna go into that a little bit, but we’re gonna sit down today with Marion Leitner-Waldman and talk about Archer Roos wines, which…
I think the brand is so cool. think what you guys have done as a company is really fascinating. I’m really excited to hear the origin story and how we got here. So welcome out to the show.
Marian Leitner (00:37.686)
Thank you, Tyler. It’s so great to be here.
Tyler Jorgenson (00:40.524)
All right, so I looked a little bit through like your LinkedIn. You did not take the traditional I was born an entrepreneur path, right? When, like what led you to this? What led you to decide I’m gonna start a business?
Marian Leitner (00:50.796)
True.
Marian Leitner (00:55.84)
Well, I think that where my LinkedIn is misleading is that I’ve always been an entrepreneur and I’ve always had a side hustle, but I am from a very pragmatic family where we always have to pay our bills. So sadly, I was not born into intergenerational wealth and I therefore needed to have a good job to give myself healthcare and things along that nature.
Tyler Jorgenson (01:20.8)
You’re not from that part of New England.
Marian Leitner (01:23.596)
Sadly, I’m not. I’m not. And in fact, don’t tell the other New Englanders, but I’m actually a Yankees fan from New York City. I know, I know. We said that secrets would come out on this podcast and they have now come out. I know.
Tyler Jorgenson (01:29.928)
man, terrifying.
Tyler Jorgenson (01:36.214)
right off the bat. So when was the moment you first realized you were an entrepreneur, that you kind of saw the world differently?
Marian Leitner (01:46.33)
honestly, I think like nine years old and like just constantly figuring out what my hustle was, whether it was like, you know, every kid, I think every entrepreneur that I’ve listened to has always talked about that at early garage sale. Well, like I hustled my neighbors and cleaned out their garages to find treasures to sell. but I I’ve always loved telling stories and I’ve always loved building things. And to me, that’s kind of
the essence of an entrepreneur is just the desire to create. If I had any artistic ability, maybe I would have been an artist. But since I don’t, I must fall back on just my business skills and therefore I’m an entrepreneur. But I founded a nonprofit when I was in high school to basically build wells in Andhra Pradesh, India and figuring out sustainable way to do that. call college years my
Tyler Jorgenson (02:17.762)
Yeah.
Tyler Jorgenson (02:29.23)
Yeah, I like that.
Marian Leitner (02:43.414)
my lost years because I was not very productive and I’ll just kind of leave it at that. But then when I graduated and I realized, my God, being an adult costs a lot. I took a full-time job that paid me, which was working in financial services, but I immediately launched a print-only literary magazine, which I was doing off the side of my desk. So I think I’ve always…
Tyler Jorgenson (02:49.686)
you
Marian Leitner (03:12.768)
I think I’ve always really just been drawn to interesting people, to stories and to things that bring people together. I lived with a winemaker when I was in high school and so developed a love of wine. I kind of joke that I started that literary magazine so that I could still throw interesting parties while working in finance. And so really then when I kind of moved on from that financial service job to go work in the World Bank, met my now husband, who’s also my co-founder.
you know, we had this problem of like, just wanted to have a glass of wine and we didn’t want to have to open up the bottle. And that really kind of started us on this journey. But like all of my previous journeys or chapters of my life, it was never really intended to be my full-time job off the bat. was kind of always my side hustle. Cause again, I’m from this pragmatic family. but there was something about this that just.
Tyler Jorgenson (04:02.734)
Mm.
Yeah.
Marian Leitner (04:11.247)
I just had to do it and I had to see it through. And, you know, I’ve been doing this full time now for eight years.
Tyler Jorgenson (04:17.759)
Yeah. And so, and that’s pretty quick from when you started to when you went full time. So give us a little bit of the, you and your husband had this idea. You saw a problem in the marketplace, you, or at least in your home, you didn’t really necessarily know the market yet. You know, how did you going from there to where you guys are now, and we’ll go through where you are now, here as we go to, what was the first really big obstacle that you faced and how’d you overcome that?
Marian Leitner (04:31.828)
In my home, yeah.
Marian Leitner (04:47.136)
Yeah. Well, so first of all, just to put this into context, we started talking about this problem of not having a good glass of wine in 2012. And the things that we talked about it were specifically around why were there no great brands in wine today that really connected with the modern consumer? Meaning like we all knew barefoot, but like I couldn’t think of anybody my age who was going to go to a store and pick it up. And instead we wanted wines that were
good quality, great story that were transparent about what was in them, but also like didn’t take themselves so seriously, like didn’t make wine intimidating because fundamentally wine is fun. It’s not healthy team, it’s fun. Don’t tell the kids at home. And so, I then worked on this idea for about four years off the side of my desk. We…
Tyler Jorgenson (05:32.27)
you
Marian Leitner (05:43.362)
The first big challenge was, we have this idea for alternative packaging. We actually want to put good wine, not in a bottle. Like, can we actually find anybody from the winemaker perspective who wants to work with us? That was our first major challenge. And so we really had to win a lot of trust, particularly because core to our business was this transparency piece, which means that we needed to list the names of the winemakers directly on the packaging.
And back in 2013, 2014, that was not something that people were interested in doing. And then parallel pathing that, we were making sure that we weren’t the only ones with this problem. So we did a lot of market research and we did a lot of, we’d hold these little tasting parties to understand what were the wines that people our age wanted to drink? What prevented them from opening up a bottle of wine versus making themselves a cocktail? We wanted to understand all of those pieces. And then that kind of built
the brand and by the time 2015 came rolling around, I was making a decision of whether or not I was going to go to graduate school and work on this idea or should I do this full time? And I didn’t love the idea of spending a ton of money on graduate school to work on an idea that would require a ton of money. So instead, you know, my husband who had just graduated from his MBA had
gotten a full scholarship. And so essentially we used the money that was being saved for education and put it into the business.
Tyler Jorgenson (07:16.566)
I like it. I like that, you know, a hint back to your starting literary magazine to have fun parties. This time you talked about it as you had market research and, you know, sophisticated tastings. Sounds like another excuse for fun parties. Yes. Yeah.
Marian Leitner (07:33.303)
Obviously. There is a thorough thread throughout everything in my life. There’s a through line, I’m sorry, not a thorough thread, a through line.
Tyler Jorgenson (07:41.486)
I like it. mean, look, it’s about being a little bit unapologetic about what you want to do and what you want to create. You can’t be a great entrepreneur and build something amazing and not want to have a good time doing it. It’s just not going to, what’s the point? So.
Marian Leitner (07:56.172)
But it’s also like, it’s about connection. mean, alcohol fundamentally is about connecting to other people. so of course, like that was always the heart of what we wanted to do.
Tyler Jorgenson (08:02.264)
It’s very social.
Tyler Jorgenson (08:08.568)
So you guys, decided to forego the, know, doing your grad school and really go in on this brand. You had started to win trust, you’d started to make connections and do some tastings. When was that moment where you were like, I think we have something, I think this is actually gonna go somewhere?
Marian Leitner (08:32.416)
Yeah, so I can get very single-minded to the point of like hard to see and hear other things. And so I will admit that like there was a pretty long period of time where we were feeling, figuring out product market fit that I didn’t really see that. But what happened was when we actually had brought our first
product to market, which was actually a box of wine. It wasn’t a can. And I was doing a tasting in a wine store in New York City. And this woman came up and she was like, I am a young mom and I need a glass of wine at the end of the day. And I know that I can’t open up a bottle or drink the whole thing. Like, where have you been? And that was the first moment where I was like, okay.
this insight that we’ve been building off of is really salient and meaningful to a lot of people. And then the more that we dug into this, the more that we realized what moderation means in the alcohol movement today is like, it’s not about, I don’t wanna drink at all, but it’s, wanna control how much I drink and where I drink it, and I wanna control what I put in my body. And so really tapping into that insight,
and like diving deep then into the quality, the transparency and that portion size just became so important. And for us, like there’s now been so many moments as we’ve kind of innovated and evolved and recognized what’s the right price point to also deliver this at. Because one issue we had with the box in retail was $40 for a box was a lot to ask consumers to pay for a brand that they’d never tried before. So
Tyler Jorgenson (10:00.343)
and
Marian Leitner (10:25.814)
We launched the cans actually as a smaller format size for you to end up buying the box. But what we found was that consumers loved the can. They loved that $15 price point, getting a high quality wine, being able to just open up a can to have that glass or mix and match to have like offer lots of different varieties at parties. And to me, like the big thing of like, man, you really have something here.
Tyler Jorgenson (10:48.471)
Mm-hmm.
Marian Leitner (10:55.05)
wasn’t just the consumer, but it was actually talking to a restaurant operator who said, man, I lose money on my wine by the glass program because I don’t make any money until I sell the second glass of wine. I’m just covering my costs on the first. And what I love about this is that I can actually offer, you know, your wines at a slightly lesser price point. So the consumer will buy more. And
Tyler Jorgenson (11:04.666)
Hmm.
Tyler Jorgenson (11:12.216)
Yep.
Marian Leitner (11:23.244)
There’s no waste. have one-to-one inventory management. I’ve controlled pours. And that’s when I realized, man, like this format issue is not just a consumer issue, it’s an operator issue. And there’s something about this romance of the 750-millimeter bottle that really doesn’t make sense for the vast majority of wines that we drink today, which are young and fresh and are consumed within 72 hours after purchase. So,
Tyler Jorgenson (11:24.532)
Right.
Tyler Jorgenson (11:47.924)
Right.
Marian Leitner (11:51.84)
While burgundies and Bordeauxs, these should always be aged in a bottle, a nice nappa cab. For the most part, what we’re drinking belongs in alternative format. And there’s a lot of people who this can really create value for.
Tyler Jorgenson (12:06.81)
there’s a lot to unpack there. And I think what you guys are doing is really neat because it’s, it’s clear that you go deep in whatever it is you’re creating, like, you know, obviously going deep on a well, right. And then going into launching this product and how did you guys come up with the name? How did you come up with the branding? Cause it’s such a, you almost misread the name at first, right. Because of the, the logo and the branding and stuff.
Marian Leitner (12:36.778)
Yeah. You mean calling it Archer Moose instead of Archer Roos? Yeah. So, you know, frankly, like I am a student of things that I admire and, you know, my co-founder and I are constantly sharing like brands that we love. And at the time when we were developing Archer Roos, like Harry’s and Warby Parker were really like the
Tyler Jorgenson (12:40.278)
Yep.
Marian Leitner (13:04.5)
standard I think that we all aspired to. And the thing that the insight that we really noticed on the wine side was that everything was always family, you know, the family’s name and then like the vineyard or chateau. And the problem was, was that all the labels really looked alike or you sacrificed artistry for like the brand name. And so we heard from a lot of our, our, you know, our friends and our kind of target demo that like,
you know, I’d have a great bottle of wine and then I can never find it again. And part of why, you know, they had such brand loyalty on the spirits and the beer side was that they could fall in love with a craft brand and it was still widely distributed and it was easily recognizable. And so we kind of immediately decided, all right, there’s a few things that we’ve got to do. One is that we need to create, we have to figure out how to take a really great high quality product.
and high quality wine, and we have to figure out how to manufacture it so it can scale, so we can have deep penetration, so our consumers can find us again and again. And the second thing then is that we’ve got to create a brand that’s memorable. And that kind of had two pieces to it. One was creating a name and the other was creating an icon. That would mean that you’d never forget. And when you see that woman riding a moose, you immediately never forget our brand.
Tyler Jorgenson (14:07.779)
Hmm.
Tyler Jorgenson (14:31.957)
Yeah.
Marian Leitner (14:32.57)
And so then when it came down to the name, we wanted to create a character that would unite all of the wine growing regions of the world and really allow space for us to create, have a lot of fun and really borrow from craft beer and craft spirits to create a fun character where we could then tell stories about and could really be a…
a voice for our consumers and like a way to educate consumers as we went around to these different wine growing regions. And that is really where Archeroose came about. So she’s this boundary pusher, this unconventional explorer, and she rides a moose because, you know, one, we believe that what life should be like your wine should be full of whimsy and you shouldn’t take yourself too seriously. And there’s something truly preposterous about seeing a woman in a riding.
on top of a moose, but also because we have a global portfolio and the moose is a true animal native to North America. And so we thought there was kind of a fun, like, I don’t know, little hidden story or Easter egg there that we liked about that.
Tyler Jorgenson (15:41.752)
Mm-hmm.
I love it. I love how much depth there is into all of this. One of the questions that I ask a lot of brands that are maybe a little bit further behind, maybe just getting started, is if they could have a brand ambassador or a celebrity endorse the brand, who would it be? And you guys have a pretty powerful connection there with Elizabeth Banks. How did that happen? How did she not only just become involved, but become a co-owner?
and just talk a little bit about that experience.
Marian Leitner (16:16.802)
Well, first of all, I’ve always admired her. Like she is so wickedly funny, but at the same time, still very sophisticated. And to me, that really embodied what we wanted to do, which was build a cheeky wine brand, right? And I’ve also like love the work that she does as an activist. And there’s just kind of a lot to love there. And so during the pandemic, one of the little known facts about our company is that we’re actually
Tyler Jorgenson (16:22.542)
Yeah.
yeah.
Tyler Jorgenson (16:39.298)
Yeah.
Marian Leitner (16:45.09)
80 % in the on-premise. That means 80 % of our business is driven through bars, restaurants, active entertainment, things like that. Retail is a relatively small fraction, but growing very fast of our business. And during the pandemic, all of that went away, right? All travel, bars, and restaurants, all of that disappeared in an instant. And so we had to really rebuild the company. And in doing so,
Tyler Jorgenson (17:05.836)
Mm-hmm.
Marian Leitner (17:15.33)
I just kind of thought, it was literally three o’clock in the morning and I was thinking about how are we going to get through the next stage. And I just thought, man, if I was ever going to reach out to Elizabeth Banks, this would be the time. So I found out who represented her, which is UTA. And I reached out to their Ventures arm and I pitched them on our brand and I pitched her team on our brand. And eventually I got to send product to her.
And a few weeks later, I got a call from her while she was floating down a river in Utah. And she was like, I get it. I’m so canned wine. Like, let’s make this happen. And we continued to get to know each other over Zoom. But it was the pandemic. You weren’t exactly meeting new people. But over that period of time, she realized, I don’t just want to be a spokesperson. I really want to invest and get involved. And I see where this is going. And the thing that really attracted me to her was that
In addition to being like a good human, which she truly is, she’s a very smart business woman and she’s kind of like that fun older sister who you really like, you think is just killing it at life. And like, you just want to know all of her secrets, which is best shared over a glass of wine. So she really just checked all of our boxes and we’ve been thrilled to have her ever since.
Tyler Jorgenson (18:31.468)
yeah.
you
Tyler Jorgenson (18:39.66)
Yeah, it’s interesting when you described kind of the way that you saw Archer Roos and the icon of that, there aren’t a lot of female celebrities that I would say kind of embody that same spirit of unconventional explorer and whimsy and all those things, but she totally does. She has an amazing ability to carry poise with her humor, which is not easy to balance. And it seems like that’s really what you’re trying to create in the product is that it’s fun.
but it’s still also really good. And so how do you maintain that balance of like, hey, we’re actually going to deliver high quality in addition to just this style that we’re doing.
Marian Leitner (19:37.804)
Tyler, are you still there?
Tyler Jorgenson (19:38.926)
I am, I think I lost you around 20 seconds ago.
Marian Leitner (19:43.892)
Yeah, where you were talking about a little, sorry, I don’t know what’s going on today.
Tyler Jorgenson (19:48.586)
It’s okay. The good news is the way the Riverside does this instead of zoom is it records each one independently. yeah, so we can just kind of pick up where I was. I just basically was saying that she seems like just such a perfect fit for what you guys are doing. And then I was asking you about how do you guys balance, quality and really putting good product into the, into the can as well as, Hey, we’re, this is unconventional and it’s innovative, right?
Marian Leitner (20:17.89)
So you almost have to treat those as two very separate things to start with. one is, well, actually I retract that entire statement. They’re very, let’s redo this whole thing. I retracted. Okay. So we take quality so seriously at our churus. Like we are very unserious about ourselves and very serious about the wine that we put in the can. And that…
Tyler Jorgenson (20:27.918)
Done. Retracted. Retracted.
Marian Leitner (20:47.158)
honestly comes back to the fact that I have to drink our wine more than any other person. And so I have to enjoy it. And if I don’t enjoy it, somebody’s going to hear about it because this wine comes with me wherever I go. But fundamentally, what does that mean? you know, there is no secret that there is bad canned wines out there, just like there’s bad boxed wines. And frankly, there’s bad bottled wines. But I think the real challenge that we have here is
Tyler Jorgenson (21:10.862)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Marian Leitner (21:15.636)
in front of us is we know that canned wines are great for the environment. And this is something that I always feel like I do. I bury the lead on a little bit, but I am a huge climate change. I believe in climate change and I believe that consumers need to do their part in lowering the carbon footprint of our species. But I recognize that just like me, we’re all
where human nature is a little selfish. And so what I love about canned wine is that it does that while solving a consumer need. And that consumer need is, I just want to have a glass of wine. I don’t want to open up a bottle and I don’t want to be pouring out wine the next day. And that also works for other layers of this industry as operators and lots of different pieces. But the can is a great solution because
It is recyclable in all municipalities in the United States, as opposed to glass. That’s only recyclable in about half of the municipalities across the US. And the dirty secret is that there are no wine approved wine bottles like made from recycled glass. There’s none. So yes. And so the reality.
Tyler Jorgenson (22:34.158)
I don’t think I didn’t know that. And I feel like I’m usually kind of, know this kind of stuff, right? And I had no idea that half the, you can’t even recycle glass in half the municipalities in the U.S. That’s fascinating.
Marian Leitner (22:47.85)
Yeah, and so why do I start with that? Because like, it’s important for innovation that you always have this North Star. And so yes, I see this consumer need, but I also see this existential need for the wine industry, which in particular, as a producer of agricultural products, needs to be overly invested in issue. therefore, figuring out how to can wine, it’s not enough to just
put wine in a can, you have to make sure it’s a true replacement pour. Why? Because otherwise consumers aren’t going to buy it. So going back to this question of quality and innovation, for me, this is a true personal mission-driven motivation of why I’m so serious about cracking this question. So yes, we’re in a can and we take innovative marketing, but the most important innovation that we do as a company is actually how we invest in research.
Tyler Jorgenson (23:20.846)
Hmm.
Right.
Marian Leitner (23:45.26)
to make sure that our cans show up well and that the wine inside is truly a replacement port. And that starts in the vineyard. We’ve been working for the last six years with the University of Cornell on operating procedures about how, literally how grapes are treated in the vineyard will impact how wine shows up in packaging later. And now we’re at this phase where we’re also working to hold can manufacturers accountable.
to make sure that the food grade lining that they’re using is the best, like the best in class to ensure that the wine shows up well. And I care about those things so much because the wine that we were putting in our packaging, you know, is made from organic grapes. It’s delicious. And I want it to always be delicious for our consumers because if we don’t have a good product, the marketing can be great, but then it’s just great marketing.
Tyler Jorgenson (24:22.733)
Mm-hmm.
Marian Leitner (24:41.674)
And at the end of the day, I got to drink, as I said, I’m drinking our wine more than anybody else. And so it’s really got to, it’s really got to be up to.
Tyler Jorgenson (24:41.932)
Mm-hmm.
Tyler Jorgenson (24:46.94)
Yep.
Tyler Jorgenson (24:51.0)
Good marketing will get somebody to buy a product once, but not twice and after that, it has to also deliver. And you put so much energy and integrity into what you guys are creating. You have some really cool account announcements coming up. Share that with us.
Marian Leitner (25:08.384)
Yeah, I mean, look, I think that when canned wine first hit the scene, there was a big emphasis on, great, now I have something to drink on a beach or on a boat or camping. But the real kind of goal of Archeroos has always been, we want to own your Sunday to Thursday night glasses of wine because you’re less likely to want to drink a whole bottle on those nights. And that’s really been our goal. So it’s how do we kind of bridge this gap? And so we’re really excited to announce that
One, we are expanding our presence in grocery through expanded partnerships with Target and Sprouts. So we can make that better. But we’re also really psyched to be now served at Regal Cinemas. So if you decide to go to the movies, you don’t just have to drink, you know, just because you’re leaving your couch doesn’t mean you have to leave your wine behind. You can have delicious wine there. And we were also recognizing that like, we don’t just like
Tyler Jorgenson (25:42.647)
cool.
Marian Leitner (26:04.322)
Even in us North Easterners who live in cold regions, like even we like to leave our houses occasionally during winter. And so we’re showing up now through a partnership with Vale Resorts where we’ll be available at all 40 of their resorts across the country. That’s 139, you know, quick serve restaurants. So instead of having a beer with your lunch on the side of the slope, you can have a glass of wine.
Tyler Jorgenson (26:30.424)
Those are all really impressive accounts, right? You are doing what a lot of brands hope they get to do, which is land large big name accounts like that and get really great distribution. As you’re hitting these levels of, in this chapter, as you will, of the story of Archer Roos, what’s something that really caught you off guard and is surprising you at this point?
Marian Leitner (26:59.376)
gosh, so many things. I think what I would say is that there is no normal day in building a company and being a challenger brand. I don’t know if I can really call myself a startup anymore, but we’re definitely still a challenger brand. And there is still a ton of roadblocks within this industry that we’re fighting for to really validate our
Tyler Jorgenson (27:18.542)
There you go.
Marian Leitner (27:28.926)
our need to like our, existence and to really prove our worth across that distribution change. But I think that the biggest struggle is, is always making sure that you are investing in your team and that you’ve, you have the right skill sets for the stage of the company that you’re at. And that’s not just a skill in and of itself. It’s a discipline to constantly assess your team. And then
Tyler Jorgenson (27:43.534)
Hmm.
Tyler Jorgenson (27:48.502)
Yep.
Marian Leitner (27:57.312)
you know, help mentor or coach to close any skill gaps or make a change.
Tyler Jorgenson (28:02.786)
Yeah, I like that. mean, yeah, as you grow, you’re going to be facing all different types of challenges and needing a higher level of skill set. I really like that the recognition that you’re moving out of that startup phase and, you’re still a challenger brand. Wine in general and historically has been a very masculine industry, but with a very feminine consumption base, which I just think is such a fascinating dichotomy. How has that been for you?
Marian Leitner (28:29.932)
Mm-hmm.
Marian Leitner (28:34.274)
Well, I think you really nailed it right on the head there. You know, there’s always been a very, this great discord in the industry where essentially the whole industry has been set up to market to 1 % of the consumers, which are the male collectors. And it really is not oriented towards the everyday drinker who is disproportionately female.
And I think it’s sad because it actually betrays the history of wine. So like the history of wine is of women, hunters and gatherers, like women’s were the first fermenters. And we kind of got written out of history as that’s evolved. And the thing that is really important here is that
Tyler Jorgenson (29:18.734)
Hmm.
Marian Leitner (29:30.114)
At the end of the day, we’re all businesses and we’re just trying to figure out how do we serve our consumer and the best way that we serve our consumers, we understand what motivates them and how to build products that they like. And the reality is that often men and women actually have different taste buds. They gravitate towards different styles of wine. And so if you have an industry that is really oriented towards serving this male collector and everybody’s aspiring to serve that male collector, then you’re really ignoring the vast
a majority of the market. And so I really see my mission as looking past what the initial data in the wine industry says, because the data is very misleading and it’s often a self-fulfilling prophecy and go a click further and really make sure that we understand who that consumer is and how we serve her best. And by the way, like while we are female first, I guess you could say,
40 % of our consumers on D2C are male. So it’s not that we are trying to be exclusion. In fact, we purposefully are really trying to build an inclusive space for people of color, for people of all sexual orientations and genders, but it’s just a recognition that we think that there’s a real disconnect in the wine industry today about who they need to serve.
Tyler Jorgenson (30:53.44)
Yeah, yeah, it’s so fascinating just by focusing or recognizing that your consumers are primarily female doesn’t naturally exclude the other buyers, but it can feel that way. And so it’s interesting that we have to talk through that. So to me, and I think that you’ve really embodied this from your early days and your pragmatic upbringing that you’ve always maintained a good balance, at least of trying to have some security while you’re building things.
Marian Leitner (31:03.681)
No.
Tyler Jorgenson (31:20.954)
and you’ve talked about that thread of fun in all of it. So for me, business is not just about achieving the business goals, but it’s also about helping create a lifestyle that you actually want to live. So what is one item on your personal bucket list that you’re gonna accomplish in the next 12 months?
Marian Leitner (31:32.322)
100%.
Marian Leitner (31:39.522)
Well, can I actually tell you one that I accomplished this past summer? I, you know, balance is really hard and it’s kind of a joke that it’s really, you can’t really ever have everything balanced at once. So you have to recognize as you’re in this marathon, which is a nice word for the grind, that is building a company. How do you feed your soul in all of this? And I realized that I really hadn’t had a summer.
Tyler Jorgenson (31:42.667)
I would love it. Go for it.
Marian Leitner (32:09.27)
since I launched this company. And my husband and I decided we were going to have a great summer as a family. So we actually moved our family to the South Coast of Massachusetts for the summer. And I made this kind of promise to myself felt like I was going to end every day either in the pool or at the beach. And so at 430, I would close my computer and I would take my kids to either like grill hot dogs on the beach or to go for an afternoon swim.
And it was so wonderful. And while part of me felt guilty, like, God, you’re only working from like 8.30 to 4.30, the other part of me was like, all of your European friends are yelling at you and saying that you’re already working too much. But I think that honestly, Tyler, it’s like, how do you figure out ways to give yourself joy? Because by filling up your cup, you can still dream. You can’t dream when you’re empty. So.
Tyler Jorgenson (32:47.15)
you
Tyler Jorgenson (32:58.828)
Mm-hmm.
Tyler Jorgenson (33:04.067)
Mm-hmm.
Marian Leitner (33:06.006)
That’s something that I did this summer that was like on my bucket list of how do I reclaim my summers? How do I create core memories for my kids and also, you know, bring joy to myself.
Tyler Jorgenson (33:18.894)
I don’t know if that’s an intentional quote or something you’ve said before, but you can’t dream when you’re empty is just really resonated with me. And I love that you took that time to really, because you only get one shot when you’re raising the kids, right? They grow up fast. My kids are all getting really old now and it’s really annoying because it’s like, you know, those moments where they want to hang out at the pool at the end of the day are fleeting.
As you filled your cup back up, as you took that time and committed to it, what dreams popped back up? What dreams rose to the top?
Marian Leitner (33:57.1)
Gosh
Well, a few different things. I’d say that like, there was just this reminder of like, why I do what I do, which is I wanted to connect to other people and I wanted to really be able to show up for the people that mattered most to me. And so like, you can do things that sound important or you can be important to the people that you love.
And I really want to be the ladder. And so how that then translated in this business context was I have been thinking a lot about how the brand shows up and, you know, the emotional territory that we’re digging into, which I think there’s always a lot of pressure to go out and try to be everything to everyone, but there’s such a power in no. And that has to come from a place of like,
self-esteem and confidence. And so that’s kind of what we’re currently treading through.
Tyler Jorgenson (35:02.114)
Mm-hmm.
Tyler Jorgenson (35:06.508)
I really like the idea that self-esteem even needs to exist within your brand, right? And the ability that’s fascinating. Marian, it has been an absolute pleasure getting to know you and chatting with you a little bit about what you guys are creating over there at Archer Roos. I hope everyone goes and checks out ArcherRoos.com. Find you guys on all the socials. guys is your socials are a ton of fun, like your brand. so, and I just think what you guys are creating is really powerful and I commend you for that.
Marian Leitner (35:10.731)
Yeah.
Marian Leitner (35:28.266)
you
Tyler Jorgenson (35:35.126)
And to all my business ninjas, wherever you are listening, watching or tuning
