Caroline (00:01.568)
Today I have Mara Smith with me. Mara is the former attorney in Chicago. She's the founder and CEO of Inspiro Tequila. So welcome Mara.
mara (00:10.762)
So nice to be here.
Caroline (00:12.8)
So I wanna hear your story behind starting in Spiro tequila.
mara (00:17.122)
Yes, like how in the world did I get into this? Yes, I started my career as a lawyer at a large law firm, mentioned a former attorney, then I worked in corporate strategy at a Fortune 500 company. And then my most recent job was as a stay at home mom. So I was home raising children for over 16 years. My corporate career came to a screeching halt when I became pregnant with my oldest, to our twins, and I was put on emergency bed rest for.
three and a half months and then I had preemie twins. So I made the decision to leave the workforce. Very fortunate I had that option, but nothing I ever foresaw. And so I ended up being home and becoming CEO of my home before starting Tequila Company. It's not because they drove me to drinking, but I do have three kids. And really I like adjust a consumer product like super consumer.
Food and beverage. I love taste testing everything. So I knew I was going to start a company. I knew it was going to be in food or beverage. And the reason it became tequila is because tequila is my drink of choice. We talked briefly and that is also seems to be your, uh, one of your drinks of choice. So what I discovered is a lot of women actually enjoy tequila. Um, but I didn't think brands were doing a really good job speaking to this consumer directly in tequila. Um, I think she's generally overlooked.
And the other thing was that I wanted to create a clean alternative. Um, I discovered that everything was drinking, um, all the brands that I knew of and was familiar with all the big brands, celebrity brands, I didn't know that they used, um, additives in their production process. I didn't know there are things like sweeteners and glycerin and coloring. Um, I thought I was drinking something that kind of, as far as, you know, alcohol beverages go, that was like a little.
better for me. And when I discovered that, I thought, okay, well, I really want something additive free, but I still want it to be really approachable and speak to me as the consumer. So just like an easy sipping tequila, sweeter tasting notes, but was there a way to get that and develop that without adding sweeteners to get that?
Caroline (02:36.94)
So you're not connected on community in the beginning. We first started talking about doing this. And I know that you're huge on that within Spiro. You know, you have Anna Maria on your team. You have women leaders. They're doing all different types of jobs within your company. Why is that so important to you?
mara (02:48.046)
Yeah.
mara (02:55.734)
Well, there's so many levels of which is a great question. It's so many levels of which community is very important to me. And starting from like the foundation of like building this brand. So if I was gonna speak to this consumer, I wanted to speak to her authentically. So not just coming just from me or just like this one figure head, but actually come at her authentically with a female perspective. So for me, it was important that everyone involved in every aspect of the business.
that we can have an all women, you know, led team. So we're led by women, but also I have a legendary female master distiller create our taste profile. So that to me just rang more authentic than when you have kind of like a boardroom full of white middle-aged men knocking their heads together. Like, what do women like? I think they like, you know, bright pink battles or sweet flavors. And then they put some like women just out in front and said like, oh, look, it's like this, you know.
woman owned brand. So I really wanted, that was the first part. Um, the second piece of community is for me, um, building a company, as you know, very difficult. Um, being an entrepreneur really lonely. And I did, you know, a ton of research, so much due diligence. There's so much, you know, I could learn on my own, but I really think it was vital to have a supportive, engaged community. So building a community of other female founders and leaders,
to help me, to share resources, to provide guidance, feedback. That is really essential. And I learned the most, honestly, from other founders. We again talked about this, you know, briefly like, oh, another woman who has, you know, an alcohol beverage company. Like, that's who I learned the most from. That's who we can like, just share information and help each other out. So that piece of it was really...
significance to me and we can get into like kind of how I did that and built and found people but making sure that I felt like I had people behind me and that I could bounce ideas off of. Really important then when I look at communities in the next level for us, it's you know we're not only certified woman-owned but we're certified B Corp and we are that because of our social impact efforts and to elevate women in business in general. And so I look at it as like not just me building community but also how can we pay it forward.
mara (05:24.362)
and try and like elevate women in business as part of our, you know, our brand ethos and the inspiral community. So partnering with women owned brands, you know, doing events with women's organizations and then giving back. So we provide grants and mentoring to other female founders. So it's really like a kind of full circle for us as far as like, you know.
creating the support and then hopefully giving support back.
Caroline (05:58.604)
I love that. I think the giving back part is so huge. I think if you lead with that and start with that, you get it back in tenfold. And not even to expect anything back, but just the ripple effect is insane.
mara (06:11.49)
And it's all those little things we can do. So I talked about grants and I can mentor, but like, there's so many little things you can do to support and give back that don't require much. It does not require a lot of money. It doesn't require, like, that's hopefully when I try and exemplify is it's making that connection for someone. Like, it's meeting another woman who you want to help support and making the connection. It's like gifting woman owned. It's buying woman owned. It's like, oh, referring, you know.
for an agency or another, you know, woman owned vendor. There are all these like little things. It's just simple as answering the message. Someone sends you a LinkedIn message and you take the time to answer it, or, you know, someone sends an email. A woman just reached out to me through our info at a Spiro address and said, I know you're really busy, but I'm starting, you know, a ready to drink company.
I'd love if I can talk to you, but I understand if you don't have time. And my response was no founder has any time, but I make the time to speak to another woman getting started if I can provide some guidance or feedback. Um, I mean, I also am very direct with my feedback. She might not love my feedback, but that's about a line that is known as anytime. But make time because that's how we can all like lift each other up and help.
Caroline (07:39.136)
That leads to the next question. So if someone's listening to this podcast right now and they're thinking, okay, I'd love to start a community, but don't even know where to begin. I mean, do you think that you find your community or your community finds you?
mara (07:52.87)
I think both. I think you start by, it had to be outbound. I kind of used to tell my kids when they're little, like, you know, that they have to take the first step. So, right, I kept, I'd use an example of like a job, like no one comes to knock on your door and ask you, you know, to come work for them. Like you got to like make those outbound efforts. So there were a couple things I did. One, I started by like joining certain networks. And so actually the person who...
Clever Windsor Community Connections grant every year. It's just some funding to help join certain organizations and networks. And I usually mentor them around that, which are ones that are really applicable to your industry or outside of your industry, but you can like learn from them. So it may not be specifically in yours, but maybe it's just a great women's network, women's organization. So I always start with that. I started with like finding some groups and organizations that I could like learn from.
Some are good because they have a lot of educational resources. Some are good because they have member meetups, like figuring out the ones that are right for you. It might be your, you know, local, you know, a local chapter or something. So that's what I started with, like finding certain groups, networks, organizations to join. Then I also, I would hear people's stories and or hear them on a podcast like this.
I listened to a lot of podcasts. I listened to them on double speed to get through more podcasts. So I would hear people's stories and something would resonate, or I would find a founder because I'm following them on LinkedIn, and then I would do thoughtful outreach. I've never sent a message to anyone saying, can I pick your brain? Ever. I will say, I heard you say this.
on the podcast, I really was interested in this, you know, piece of your marketing strategy. I would love to know how you develop that. And can we set up a time, you know, can we connect? So coming in, knowing that you did some like research and background and with a thoughtful, I think, you know, some kind of thoughtful outreach is always helpful. And then if you think about it,
mara (10:08.63)
Talk about making a referral or connecting someone. Everyone has another person to connect you with. And the key there is following up on all those connections. So everybody you talk to has another person for you to talk to or another three people for you to talk to and then they have more people. So for me, it's like tracking that, keeping track of the people that I meet with and following up. And that's where I think a lot of people probably like stop.
They make that first intro and then they don't do the follow up piece of it.
Caroline (10:42.772)
Yeah, I know I agree with you and I agree with you with the purposeful messaging because I mean you probably get plenty like me every single day and the ones that spam me or just want to come at me and pick my brain or have my time or whatever, that's plentiful but the ones who are intentional with their messaging are the ones I actually send accountantly to and want to meet with.
mara (11:03.638)
Right, and if they seem like they know about you and your business, right? Like I come in, I'm probably like a little stalker-ish. I'll know like, you know, I know where you vacationed, I've been tracking your Instagram, I know how many kids you have, I'm, you know, so like, it really... Ha ha ha.
Caroline (11:17.628)
Okay, I'm literally the same way.
Caroline (11:23.688)
So as we wrap up today, how can our listeners find you?
mara (11:27.194)
Yes, so first of all, we talked about connecting. So definitely find me on LinkedIn. I'm a big LinkedIn fan. So Mara Smith, M-A-R-A Smith on LinkedIn. Follow Inspiro Tequila on Inspiro Tequila, I-N-S-P-I-R-O Tequila. And online our website is www. So yes, feel free to.
Follow us and reach out, because I need to answer those LinkedIn messages.
Caroline (11:58.144)
Thanks, Maura.
mara (12:00.29)
Thank you.
