Episode 473 Eric Dominijanni How Military Discipline Built a Premium Scotch Brand Transcript

This transcript is from episode 473 with guest Eric Dominijanni.

Scott DeLuzio: [00:00:00] Hey everyone. Welcome back to Drive On. I’m your host, Scott DeLuzio. And today my guest is retired major Eric Domeniani. A, uh, yeah, I got it right. I got the name, right. First try. That was awesome. Uh, so yeah, he’s a retired, uh, Marine Corps veteran and, uh, and, and the CEO and founder of FIOR Scotch, the only, uh, Oh, FIOR, sorry, I got that one wrong, I got the last name right, I got the name of the company wrong,

Eric Dominijanni: right?

Scott DeLuzio: so anyway, so, um, here to talk about his journey, his experience, uh, kind of getting in and out of the Marine Corps, and, you know, kind of what led him to where he is today, and, and, and things like that, and hopefully serve as a roadmap for some other folks who are, uh, you know, looking to carve their own path, uh, going forward.

So, uh, before we get into everything here, uh, Eric, welcome to the show, glad to have you here.

Eric Dominijanni: Hey, glad to be here.

Scott DeLuzio: Yeah, absolutely. So, um, tell us a little bit about your time in [00:01:00] the Marine Corps. Uh, you know, what were your, was your experience like? What, everyone has different experiences, right? Um, you know, people fitting in or not fitting in within the Marine Corps or, you know, in the culture and all that kind of stuff.

Uh, you know, tell us about your experiences.

Eric Dominijanni: well, if I could describe, and I’ve done this before, there was what is it like to go through, uh, I went through OCS, so I came in as an officer. Um, so you have to understand, like, to me, if you ask, like, what is it like to go through OCS, It’s like going to prison. You have a bunch, you have a bunch of alpha males, you know, aggressive, short haircuts, all dressed the same, eating probably the same food from all over the United States, and you’re forced to be in a, in a situation where you all gotta like, you know, I won’t say work together, but you’re all gonna be with one another.

And you, when you first walk in, you know, someone like me, I had no experience, uh, most of the people in my, uh, at, uh, [00:02:00] officers bootcamp that I went through, they were like repeat offenders, if you will, these are guys who were, you know, they had three years in the Marine Corps, five years, they were already sergeants, they’ve already been through, they know the rules, they know, You know, all this stuff.

Or their fathers were prisoners, were criminals, you know, aka my father’s a general, my father’s a colonel. And then there was like this small handful of like, me, like another New Yorker, you know, we were like sitting there like, uh, you know, we were like completely clueless. And when you walk in, like when you first get introduced, just like prison, you have to choose like, a crew.

To roll with. And, you know, if you’re like prior enlisted, that’s like one crew, then you have like the black guys, or the white guys, or the hispanic guys, whatever it is, they have their own little thing, but the number one crew, which was a shock to me, was delineated by religion. And, uh, that was a crazy one.

It was like, you’re either a Protestant and that includes [00:03:00] Lutheran, Mormon, you know, and then Catholic, that was it. You know, that was it. There was like, you know, and then if you weren’t like, if you were like not religious, you just weren’t going to make it, you had no crew to roll with. You were getting like attacked in the shower.

I mean,

that’s not real. I mean, we’re talking prison. You know, that didn’t happen at all. Yes. But you, you just were like alone and afraid, you know, and then you had like me, you know, I walk in. You know, back home, I’m Billy Badass. You know, I was on the track team. I’ve been doing martial arts since I was a kid.

You know, I’m ripped. I went to an Ivy League school. I went to NYU. And then you go, and then you realize you’re just normal.

You know, it was like, I had guys who went to MIT. They were supposed to build Uh, a twice scale or three times scale, like remote control dragonfly, uh, a guy who went to Yale or Harvard who majored in Latin, uh, dude was a marathon runner.

We had a guy who was an Olymp, we had like three Olympians, you know, I was like, wow, this is like just, and I was out [00:04:00] of my element, uh, because, uh, number one, I had no prior military experience. And when you walk in and they’re singing the Marine Corps hymn and I’m there like, uh, uh, what my, my recruiter did not prepare me for this at all.

He just said, Oh, you’re, you know, you fit. Cause I’m very ethnically diverse. Let’s just say, so I fit every, uh, check in the box that he needed. You know, we need a black guy or we need to, you know, Oh my God, you have the, you know, we’re just sending you in. So I had no clue what the Marine Corps hymn was. I didn’t know how to spell like, uh, phonetically, you know, Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta.

I was clueless with that. I didn’t know who Chesty Puller was. And all of the other guys, like 88 percent of the first time I went through OCS were all prior enlisted. And they were like, you don’t belong here. You shouldn’t be here. You should be like, how could you be an officer if you don’t have any prior experience?

Oh, it was hard. It was like, it was an. And then, as an [00:05:00] athlete, you’re a specialist, and the Marine Corps needs a generalist. Oh, you’re a bodybuilder? You can’t run. Oh, you’re a marathon runner? You don’t have the upper body strength. Oh, you’re like, and me, I was a sprinter, but I need to eat like six to eight times a day. Now that’s a good one. Let’s see how that works. I need to sleep nine hours or eight, and stretch. No, no, no, you’re not getting that, you know. second time I went, I lost it four days before, uh, graduation and I got, uh, sent back home for a lack of humility and improving too much physically. I, I, there was like a rope.

I’m like, I’ve never seen a rope before. I can climb a fence. I can go through concertina wire. You know, but, but, you know, at the very beginning you, you’ve already highlighted or skylined yourself because, you know, how come you don’t know? I was born the same day as the Marine Corps. Birthday, November 10th.

So then they’re like, you know, you don’t even know, like, you know, your birthday is November 10th? And I was like, I sorry instructor, like, you don’t even know what that is, do you? And I’m like, [00:06:00] so I’ve already looked like an idiot on the first day. I wasn’t making it through, but you have to find a reason to get rid of me.

And, you know, I’m a New Yorker. I got a bad attitude. So I was like, screw all you guys. Second time I went through, I walked through, it was like, I changed my workouts, you know, because you have to realize that the people are the first time. These primalistic guys for several years like well, I’m sprinting and going up hills and boxing These guys are doing a three mile run They’re doing pull ups and they’re doing sit ups and push ups and that’s it.

And that’s what the Marine Corps needs for, you know, OCS But uh, yes, but at the end of the day I did not fit in at all It was just a very it was a culture shock for me And it wasn’t the physics was just the you know, you think you come from the most You Uh, you know, I was in New York, and you come from the most, you know, ethnically diverse or culturally, you know, diverse county in the world, which I did, and then you joined the Marine Corps, and then you’re like, you know, the people are looking at you, it’s like, you got a funny last name, Dominant, what kind of, you know, what kind of name is that?

You know, you’re like, uh, [00:07:00] and everyone is

like Smith, you know, uh,

Scott DeLuzio: right,

Eric Dominijanni: just like,

Scott DeLuzio: Jones, you know,

Eric Dominijanni: Yeah, and then even, I couldn’t even relate to the black guys in, you know, cause I’m mixed, I couldn’t even relate to the black guys in the Marine Corps cause they’re all from like Alabama, you know, and I’m there like, uh, you know, grits, you don’t eat grits, you know, like, no, I don’t even know what grits are, you know, you know, so it was, it was like, you know, the Jetsons going to the

Flintstones.

That’s what I felt like,

Scott DeLuzio: yeah, it, you check your ego at the door, I think it’s, and I think that’s probably across, you know, a lot of the branches, you know, I have an obvious ego. Obviously, I had experience in all of them, I was army, but, um, yeah, the,

yeah,

okay, that’s how this conversation’s gonna go, it’s fine, as long as we set the ground rules off, you know, at the beginning, that’s cool, um, no, but, but it’s, seriously, like, you, you go in there, uh, even, I remember in my basic training, we had We had guys who were pretty athletic and, [00:08:00] but it’s like not the right kind of athletic, you know, it, you got to be army athletic, like what the army is looking for.

You got to be strong and you got to be fast and you got to be, you know, you know, flexible and agile and you got to do all these different things. So being a specialist, like you said, at any one of those things, being really fast, like a sprinter or being a bodybuilder and being really strong, Those aren’t good for, as far as they’re concerned, right?

Um,

Eric Dominijanni: the other one that’s not being good as being a New Yorker because I always heard rumors that they target New Yorkers and it’s true. I’ve had some of the drill instructors or the sergeant instructors. Who wound up working for me later on, years later. And they admit, yeah, we pick on New Yorkers. Cause you guys are most likely to swing at us.

You have a bad attitude. And it’s like, I thought that when I went through OSHA, they wanted you to be tough.

It like, like, you know, so when they accused me of something, I’m like, who the hell do you think you’re? And

no, no,

Scott DeLuzio: Wrong answer.

Eric Dominijanni: right, you’re wrong. You know, you’re late. No, I wasn’t. I was here. I was waiting by the door.

Nope. [00:09:00] You’re late.

Scott DeLuzio: Right. Yeah. You just accept it and take the punishment and move

Eric Dominijanni: I couldn’t do that. I, that was my biggest, that was, My biggest, or when they said like, you did something that you didn’t do, or you didn’t do something that you did do. Oh, I, I was not having it.

Scott DeLuzio: Yeah. Right.

Eric Dominijanni: that bit me in the butt the

first time around. So, right.

Scott DeLuzio: so I, I’m glad we got to talk about this because, uh, you know, it, it was one of those things you had to overcome. Right. And. You, sounds like you, sounds like you did, you know, you, you, you had some, some success. You at least got through OCS anyways, right?

Eric Dominijanni: Yeah. I, I, I, I made it through

OCS. Yes.

Scott DeLuzio: right. so so it was more successful the second time around than It

Eric Dominijanni: Oh, I walked through it. Yeah. It

Scott DeLuzio: Yeah, exactly. So

how did that, did that change your mindset at all? Like it’s, as far as like, this is what this job is going to require is to be. You know, kind of more conforming to the Marine Corps way of life. Right,

Eric Dominijanni: after OCS, we go through a thing [00:10:00] called TBS. And it’s like a pre infantry basic officer development. And I went through and again, I was out of my element. Um, I wasn’t Southern. Uh, when I went through OCS, there was a guy, um, I, he, he basically, uh, referred to the Marine Corps as unified Southern male Christians, something like that, you know?

And I was like, okay, whatever. And there was a lot of truth to it. I remember this is just my experience. I’m not saying the whole Marine Corps is like, So I get to TBS and I, I couldn’t believe some of the things that I heard and saw, you know, um, and it’s not bad. These are just individuals, like I had this one very, very Southern woman who hated Yankees, just hated us.

You know, Oh my God, I can’t believe what Sherman did when he, I’m like, do you understand that if you were side one, me and you wouldn’t be talking right now?

Scott DeLuzio: right,

Eric Dominijanni: You know, like, and like, look at you, you’re just like, you’re going to a disco. You know, And I’m wearing like, shoes and, you know, [00:11:00] slacks, and you know, these guys are wearing khaki pants and brown shoes with a braided belt with a collared shirt, like, you know, and I’ve had this haircut, I mean, you can call it a Marine Corps haircut, I’ve had this haircut since I was Like 13 years old.

So my haircut really didn’t change, but you know, having to, like, you know, people didn’t know what a diner was. People, you know, putting ranch on pizza, not being it, not knowing how to fold a slice of pizza in half, eating things like grill, like let’s go out for Italian food and they would be like, okay, let’s go to, um, Olive Garden.

And I’m like, no, no, I’m half a Tai Chi. You know, so it was, again, it was a huge, huge culture shock

Scott DeLuzio: Yeah.

Eric Dominijanni: Then I hit the fleet. So, so that was the part where I kind of realized that you have to fit in to a crew again and reinforce that. And then I joined, then I hit the fleet and that was the kick between the legs.

Um, I’ll just say like, I remember [00:12:00] when I was a company commander, we, we all checked in the same time we got a new battalion commander. And there, the first guy’s father was a general. The second guy’s father was our battalion commander’s old battalion commander when he was a lieutenant. The third guy went to the academy, his two brothers went to the academy, and his father went to the academy.

And then there’s me. And that was, and I just shook my head. Oh, no, anything that can go wrong was my fault. Anything. And I’ll never forget my boss yelling at me one time, another time. And, you know, telling me that how I’m messed up. I don’t know what’s going on with this. And then. I’m smiling. It’s like, you don’t need it.

I’m going to combine the stories to make it shorter. Cause it happened throughout my whole career.

Scott DeLuzio: Sure, sure.

Eric Dominijanni: don’t even take your job seriously. Look at you, you’re smiling. And I’m like, and he’s like, that wasn’t you. That was you, right? I’m like, that wasn’t me. Uh, I’m Bravo company. That’s, you know, alpha companies in the [00:13:00] field today.

Not me, but do you want me to go get the general son? So you can go yell at him the way you were yelling at me to get out of my office. So I still maintain my New York, um, go F yourself attitude. Uh, if you will, I’m not going to admit I’m wrong when I’m right. And then I would also learn, uh, many times throughout my career, I’ve been, you know, accused of this accused of that, blah, blah, you know, just cause if the boss, he just sees it, he doesn’t know, you know, in the boss of defense, he only knows what he saw.

He didn’t see what happened behind the closed doors or, you know, uh, you know, I had one time wrong Brown guy, you know, they weren’t, uh, there was literally, it’s not that my boss was a racist or anything like that. There was just, Two guys of color in the same location, so it had to be me. And you know, I found out something.

Your boss is going to yell at you, and he’ll tell you how you’re all messed up. And I would sit there, and I’m like, and let him yell, and I do the same thing. You got the wrong guy, and then I proved that he was wrong in front of everyone. If you’re gonna, if you’re gonna, you know, pull me out and try to like, you know, [00:14:00] treat me like garbage in front of everyone, I’m gonna respond accordingly.

And then what happens the next week? He tries to get you for something else, and you’re like, nope, and try to get you for something else, and sooner or later, everyone hates you, you know, because it’s like, you know, he tells his assistant, oh, Dominion, he’s always, like, fighting me, well, stop accusing me, but why don’t you ask me first, like all the other guys, You know, why don’t you ask me first if I did this, and I’ll tell you yay or nay.

But you jumped down my throat, blah blah blah, and again, I’m still a New Yorker, it’s in my bloodstream, if I’m right, I’m right. But if you’re right, you’re wrong.

Scott DeLuzio: Right.

Eric Dominijanni: So I, that was my big, I, I kept my New Yorker, um, attitude for 20 years. Um, the one thing I did learn, the other part when I hit the fleet, was I had a, uh, on two occasions.

One was a, uh, senior enlisted of a color. He was black, and the other one was, uh, this is a great one, he, uh, no one knew that he was Jewish, except for me, because I [00:15:00] could hear the accent, the last name, I could, I picked up on it like, oh, he’s like, you know, from my neighborhood, and in both those cases they were like, hey, just to let you know, you need to keep track of every email, save every email, never say anything unless you have it recorded, you have witnesses, and we’re not having this conversation.

And I was like, okay, you know, it was a CYA and that, those two guys, uh, one was a captain. The other one was a first sergeant, I’d saved my, if I didn’t have those, that conversation with those two Marines, I would have probably been kicked out for being five minutes late when I was really five minutes early.

I kept track of everything and that’s what saved my career. So that was my experience in the Marine

Corps.

Scott DeLuzio: Wow. Yeah, so, I mean, you know, I always say this, like, everyone has different experiences, and so, um, you know, part of the reason why I ask these questions, and people might wonder, like, in the beginning of these episodes, whenever I have a veteran on the show, I always ask, like, You know, what was your experience like in the, you know, the Marine Corps, the Air Force, the Navy, the [00:16:00] Army, you know, whatever branch you’re in, I always ask, you know, what was your experiences like, because everyone had different experiences, and it kind of helps frame the, the, the kind of the narrative of what Why, why are you the way that you are, you know, like what, what’s going on, you know, what, what makes you tick?

Why did you end up, you know, getting out when you did? When, why did you end up doing the thing that you’re doing? Uh, you know, after you got out and all that kind of stuff. So, um, you know, I, I, I love asking those types of questions. Um, but, so One of the things I want to get into is, is your company now and share, share with us a little bit of, you know, kind of what got you into starting your business and, you know, why Scotch and maybe some challenges, obstacles, and maybe, you know, what, what were some lessons learned from the Marine Corps that helped you along the way, or maybe held you back a little?

Eric Dominijanni: Okay, um, you said, why scotch? Uh, to quote, uh, Bluto Blutarski from Animal House, WHY NOT? Uh, haha, [00:17:00] um, It goes with the Marine Corps. This is something, uh, the Marine Corps has this unique way of finding something that makes you happy and destroying it. Like, you know, Oh, you like to play guitar? You can’t bring a guitar into the barracks.

So, uh, I was stationed, uh, you know, I wanted to be a chef my whole life. Uh, food is very, very important to me. It goes with my genetic makeup. I’m half Italian, you know, blah, blah, blah. And I had spent a lot of time, considerable time, in the Caribbean. Uh, I knew everything about rum. Every island that make rum, man, I tell ya, I know everything about rum.

And, unfortunately, when you’re a Yankee like myself, um, you, you know, you don’t fit in again in some places, so I was always getting stationed like Lejeune, you know, 29 Palms, California, middle of the desert, and you’re just like, can you just station me someplace with, I don’t know, food, women, something to do on the weekend, and like, oh, we’ll send you to Pendleton, you know, San Diego, but, Your stuff will be there.

You’re going to be in Okinawa on the base where there’s no women. There’s nothing to do but work. So all I did was work [00:18:00] out like the whole time in the Marine Corps, you know. Anyway, so I get to, uh, I’m in 29 Palms for the second time. I’m in between deployments, uh, Iraq and Afghanistan. And on the weekends, like my brother, a lot of my friends from back home, my friends from the Marine Corps who got out, they all lived, um, on the West Coast.

And so I’d go to LA like almost every weekend just to get away from the 120 degree weather from the McDonald’s all because that’s the best they they had to offer in the area. There’s nothing there. So I would drive out there, you know, my motorcycle, just chill with them on the weekends and come back and I was, uh, I was in a bar, uh, I think it was called Bordner’s or something like that.

I really think that was an it bit. We were all like, like, we were, it was a night where it’s like two friends are here and then they were going to leave and another friend was going to come in and then, you know, blah, blah, blah. And I, we all went out to this bar and some guy was like, Hey, are you guys veterans?

You guys in the military? And they all point to me. And like one guy was, you know, got out, but I was the only active duty guy in that group that at that moment. [00:19:00] And, uh, this guy offered to buy me a drink and, you know, I’ll be jo I’m not gonna be, uh, uh, I’m gonna be completely honest, I thought he was hitting on me, you know, cause, you know, he’s, you know, just, you know, like, you know, oh, can I buy you a drink, you know, it’s like, yeah, sure, you know, whatever, I don’t care.

You know, that means I’m in shape, I’m good looking, you know, there we go. And then I realized he was straight because he was playing with me because he gave me like the most disgusting drink I’ve ever had in my life. Um, it was like Malort or something. I, I, I just can’t, I, I don’t know how people drink that.

And I was like, so now I’m in a bad mood because you have to understand that Lejeune, it was. Wow. There was like nothing to do there. I mean, I mean, outside of inbreeding and maybe Bassmasters and NASCAR, there was like absolutely nothing I could, I could find. There was no women, no good food, no nothing.

You know, everything come with fries, you know, I just couldn’t. And then I was in 29 Palms where that was, you know, at least it was the center of no, the middle of nowhere, but the center of everything, you know, you had to leave there on the weekends. I’m just like, God, I can’t get a good haircut. I can’t get this here.

Every time I for a cheeseburger, they give me a [00:20:00] slice of pizza. I’m like, can I just for once, for once as a paying customer, get what I want. ’cause on a military base, you know, you go, can I have a haircut that’s not crooked this time? Know can, you know, and there’s nothing you can do because it, the areas outside of town just have to be a little bit better than what you get on base.

Scott DeLuzio: Right.

Eric Dominijanni: And what you get on base is garbage. So, you know, it’s

like you

Scott DeLuzio: not much

Eric Dominijanni: Yeah, you get Domino’s on base, but you get Pizza Hut out in town, you know.

Scott DeLuzio: Right.

Eric Dominijanni: So you’re like, you know, so I’m in a bad mood and I’m always a designated driver. I didn’t really drink, you know, anything at that time. But then I got married. But anyway, I didn’t really drink for that time.

So my buddies are like, dude, we’re driving. Just, you’re in a bad mood. We got you. So we went bar hopping and then we went to this place in like, um, I can’t remember the name. It may be his Long Beach area, Huntington Beach, Huntington Beach. I think it was. And I was like, what do you have for rum, man? And all he had was well, you know, he just had well, you know, [00:21:00] the basic generic, I’m like, I think it’s California.

They’re not rum drinkers. And I was like, that’s all you have? And he’s like, dude, you’re in a scotch bar or whiskey bar. They’re like, what? And he goes, look up. And it’s like all these scotches and whiskeys. No, I was like, wow. And I know nothing, you know, about it. I’m about 35 years old at this time, which is like, that’s the age where you really start drinking scotches and whiskeys, you know, or appreciating them.

So I was like, yeah, um, hey, teach me. And he’s like, what? I was like, teach me. And he’s like, are you, are you serious? I’m like, listen, I know nothing. I’m an aspiring chef. I know rums. I know talents. I know this. I know that. I know nothing about scotches. So I go, just don’t rip me off. I threw my Navy Fed card on the table.

And he’s like, you really want to learn? I’m like, yeah. And he gave me like this omokase. You have to drink this with that and blah, blah, blah. And put some club soda in here, put water. But this one, unlike me, this is from the Highland. This is from the space that this is smoky, but this is Petey. There’s a big difference, you know?

And he was just so happy to teach me. Like he was just like, I got a guy who’s actually interested. And the dude was like half Irish, half Scottish or [00:22:00] something like that. So he was like, Oh, yeah. So this is like my culture, you know, it’s like, Oh, wow. And I got the book. And I, after that, I, my rum collection became a scotch collection, scotch and whiskey collection.

And I eventually moved back to Miami. That’s when I really, really started it. And then, uh, you know, I make my own mead. I make my own, you know, uh, Sausage, salami. I’ve made my own cheese. I make my own ice cream. I make just about everything. So it’s just an inevitability that after, you know, a couple of years after experimenting with scotches and whiskeys, that I was going to try to make the Dominiani house blend, you know, and, you know, for my friends, because I heard about this thing called the legacy bottle, the infinity bottle.

And, um, yeah, I started like, you know, taking some of the scotches, you know, and then, you fail the

first time you feel like, oh, yes, I failed the first time. Um. But then I made it, like, eventually I made a blend that I thought was like, wow, you know, like, this is great. And, uh, I had a couple of Marines over, one [00:23:00] sailor, uh, submariner, and then, uh, I, I, you know, busted open.

I was like, all right, guys, you know, this is it, you know, and they were like, all right, let’s do this. So we have dinner parties at my house, we smoke cigars, barbecue. And I poured them all and they loved it. They absolutely loved it. And I was like, great. And then, you know, you notice the bottles doing this.

It’s not getting higher. And I’m not adding, I was like, I don’t want to add anything else to it because. You know, and I’m thinking like, okay, I’ll just do another bottle next time when we’re done. I’ll just experiment again, but I got to be honest. I really, really liked what I had and I’m not going to say I’m a Scotch, you know, especially at the time.

I wasn’t, uh, you know, I was an enthusiast, but I really didn’t know much about it. So I don’t know if like it was there like a Campbelltown or there was a Highland or a space. It was there a blend that tasted like this. So I was like, man, this is getting lower. I’m like, Oh, there’s got to be a way to duplicate this.

And the inspiration came from my old boss, Colonel Bolaño. I’ll give him props. He gets his own cigars made. He’s like, hey, I want a, uh, you know, a wrapper. I want this [00:24:00] gauge with this fill with this wrapper. I want, you know, a Honduran cigar, et cetera, et cetera. And my uncle Luciano, who gets his own winemade, he calls up California, and he’s like, I want a 23 percent Cabernet and a 34, and you know, he gets like a couple of cases mailed to him at the time.

So it was great. But where do you go? So then I got this, hey, wait a minute, my buddy, who I see every quarter, we went to college together. He’s in the liquor business. He used to own Hypnotic. His father was, you know, he used to own Finlandia or something like that. So I’m like, wait a minute, Jim Landis, you know.

So I call him up. And I was like, yo, Jim, are you still in the, you know, the alcohol business, you know, and he’s like, I don’t know what you used to cook. Cause we only talk about, you know, at that time we never really talked business. It was always like, Hey, you remember that time we got drunk and, you know, in college and you know, there was this fight and there was that girl and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

So, uh, we, we talk about it and he’s like, uh, yeah, I mean, I’m like, Hey, and I explained the situation. Is there a way that you can make me like a couple of cases? You know, I’m looking at, you know, X amount of cases a year and maybe [00:25:00] twice a year. And, you know, I was like, yeah, look, I’m going to Scotland in a couple of months.

And, um, you know, it would be great if you can, you know, bring this up there, you know, here’s our, save the sample and then, you know, make some, uh, you know, see if they can reproduce this. So I go, I get, you know, I don’t really know all the, you know, cause I was measuring, measuring like this, two fingers of this, three fingers of this, four fingers of this.

So it wasn’t like a, you know, a

perfect science on that one. He’s

Scott DeLuzio: Yeah, nothing precise with that.

Eric Dominijanni: Exactly. Cork it. And I’ll, you know, and I’ll, I’ll bring it up. So, I honestly thought that he, uh, drank it or, you know, cause it’s not like it happened in one day. I thought he forgot about it and I didn’t want to like push him cause he’s a good friend.

Like, Hey, what’s going on? So months, months have passed and I’ve actually seen him throughout this time period. And he’s like, Hey, we need to talk. Oh, I got to go. Boom. And I was like, Oh, that sucks. So I figured I lost it. And then later on, it’s like, you know, the, the, you know, the check comes in. I wasn’t, uh, the bill comes in.

That [00:26:00] wasn’t cheap. And, uh, I got six cases. Um, well, actually, sorry. He says, um, we had, uh, three samplers and he goes, uh, which one do you like the most? And then I go, uh, Hey, I really, really liked this one. The middle one. Cause like the military, the first one is okay. The second one is the one you want. The third one is in.

So same thing. He’s never been in the military. The second one was exactly what I wanted. I will say, I can’t tell you if it was a hundred percent like what I created, but I said, this is the one I liked the most. And he said, that’s the closest that they came to duplicating what you gave me. And I was like, all right, um, I want six cases of this twice a year.

He’s like, cool, not a problem. So, uh, he goes and again, more months passed. And then the next thing you know, he comes up and here’s the cases and I crack it open with my buddies, Marines. I think the sailor was with us also that day and they loved it. And one of them doesn’t even drink. He’s like, this is absolutely phenomenal.

And, um, So they loved it, and then they’re [00:27:00] like, Hey bro, you know, you need to let me get a bottle. And I was like, I can’t give you, this is all I have. He was like, yo, let me buy a bottle. I’m like, I didn’t charge you for dinner, I’m not gonna charge you for the bottle. So they’re like, uh, that was a Moreno.

And, uh, so like the next day, it was like, uh, two of my Marines, uh, two of my buddies of mine, and they were like, Yo, bro, you really need to get this out there. Like, you know, for 48 hours, these guys are calling me up. Yo, I’m telling you, you got some good stuff, bro. You really need to get this out there. And that’s exactly how they talk.

That’s not an exaggeration. That’s how they speak. Bro, another guy. Bro, bro, you need to get there from Miami. You need to get this out there, man. I’d buy a bottle and I don’t even drink. So I contacted my buddy, Jim, again, and I was like, Hey, what did you think? He’s like, I have a bottle here right now. It’s really good stuff.

And I was like, good. I’m glad that I paid for

your, you know, uh, bottle.

Scott DeLuzio: Enjoyment.

Eric Dominijanni: Yeah, exactly. And, uh, I was like, if I, you know, I wanted to get this out there, if I wanted to, uh, You know, uh, capitalize on this, you know, venture, how, how would I do that? Stomp, stomp, stomp. It’s like, well, you’d need to have like someone who knows the [00:28:00] business, AKA me, him, um, you know, I think that it’s good enough.

You know, would you buy this? He’s like, yeah, I think that people would buy this, you know? And so we started talking and, you know, several years later, here we are now, you know, six awards later, uh, more now, actually, uh, six awards. Um, you know, we’re on our, about to start our third round, uh, you know, I wouldn’t be here without them.

You know, I can make a great product. I just don’t know the business aspect and I’m learning every day from them.

Scott DeLuzio: think that’s one of the things that, you know, maybe just taking this back from, you know, military experience, kind of that, that humbling experience when you walked into OCS and. It’s like, well, I really don’t know shit about any thing that’s going on here. Right. Um, but you gotta learn, right.

And, and, and eventually you, you kind of catch up to, you know, whatever it is that, um, that you need to learn. And, and, and now, you know, here you are running a successful business off of something Just by [00:29:00] chance, you happen to walk into a whiskey bar, a scotch bar, you know, whatever, and had you not done that, you know, we, would we even be sitting here having this conversation about what you’re doing right now, you know, and would, would you have even been exposed to it in the way that, that you did?

Eric Dominijanni: I owe it all to the guy who gave me the malort. Got me

in a bad mood.

Scott DeLuzio: know, and, and so it’s, but you, you, you have that humbling experience. It’s like, okay, look, I don’t know everything there is to know about this. Let me, let me, uh, Take some time to learn. Let me find the right people to help me learn, you know, somebody who’s already in the business and can, you know, help me get ahead, learn the ins and outs.

Uh, maybe people who’ve already made the mistakes that I’m about to make so that they can kind of help steer me away and be like, Hey, don’t do it that way because. of this and, and so that they teach you and, and you get to learn, you know, what, what’s good, what’s not, um, you know, all that kind of stuff. So, um, you know, so it’s a big leap [00:30:00] though, from being an enthusiast to starting your own business, right?

Huge leap. Um, I, and I know you, you had some buddies who, who were telling you, Hey, you know, you should get this out there. Um, what was, what was it for you that, that like the light bulb moment, maybe that, that was like, yeah, this is, this is a thing I can actually sell and actually, be successful with.

Eric Dominijanni: It was, uh, those two Marines more than anything, like I, I know when I cooked, I make an amazing carbonara. I make, when I cook some things like my friends in the Marine Corps, um, you know, they always, they just always complain, Oh, we can’t take you out to dinner. Every time we take you out to dinner, you always complain about the food.

I go, what happens when I bring you out to dinner? They’re like, Oh, it’s the bomb. You know, so I know what good food is. You know, I have a palate. That’s all I have. And I make, I make probably one of the best carbonaras you’ll ever eat. You know, but I don’t know how to sell it. You know, that’s it. I just, at that time, at that time, I, you know, I didn’t know anything about the business aspect, whether it was the restaurant business.

I’ve designed menus, [00:31:00] believe it or not. I’ve walked into like, uh, the old club and told them, you need to change this. You know, I’ve given advice to chefs and cooks and stuff like that. But, you know, this is large scale, you know, this is, you know, my money. This is, you know, my business is my reputation. You know, my name is literally on the bottle.

If you look at the back of the bottle, my name is on the bottle. So, you know, the, the, the biggest thing, uh, was, it was, uh, Laz, uh, those two Marines, uh, Laz and, uh, Moreno. Uh, I, I, they’re the ones who really lit the fire under my butt because they’ve come over and they’ve said, Hey man, this is some really good chow.

This is my boy Dom. Yeah. My boy Dom, he can cook. Yo. You know, and that’s, that’s just the way these guys are. But it, it didn’t hit me till I got the repeat calls

Scott DeLuzio: Mm hmm.

Eric Dominijanni: from them where they were like, bro, Bro, I’m serious. You need to, you know, and I was like, okay, the first month, yeah, I know I have a good product.

It’s just for me and my family. That’s it. You know, [00:32:00] and my boys, when they come over, but when that phone keeps ringing and you’re like, whoa, maybe I have a product that’s a lot better than I thought. And you know, I owe that all

to them.

Scott DeLuzio: Yeah, for sure. And when when you get that initial feedback from someone, A lot of times people will do that where they’ll just be like, oh yeah, this is good. And, you know, just kind of, you know, puff up your ego or, you know, whatever it is. And, you know, yeah, yeah, this is pretty good stuff. But, but they really don’t care if they ever have it again, you know, in a lot of cases, right.

Um, they may just be, you know, trying to be nice and supportive and all that kind of stuff. But to your point, when you get that, those, those repeat phone calls or, you know, they, they, they’re coming back over and like, Hey, do you got any more of that? The good stuff, you know?

Eric Dominijanni: Well, actually, my house is different because the people who eat over at my house have eaten over enough times where they’re comfortable to say, ah, bro, like this is dry, like the lamb and people are like, when you have the [00:33:00] new curtains in the house, they’re like, how can you say that the food wasn’t good?

He invited you. And I’m like, no, he’s right. He’s absolutely right because they’ve come over enough so I, I don’t, I don’t, I take what they say, you know, as like, you know, like, you know, doctrine, if you will, you know, I, I actually believe they’re, when my friends come over and they say, yo, this is the bomb, I know it is because they’ve, they’ve, they’ve had like, you know, my carbonara the first time, the second time, oh, this is the best carbonara I’ve eaten, this is better than your third or your fifth time, so when they said that, that’s another reason why I don’t want BS, if it sucks, you need to let me know it sucks.

Otherwise, I will keep serving

crappy food.

Scott DeLuzio: That’s true. That’s true. And then they’re not going to be coming over quite as often, right?

Eric Dominijanni: So when they said

that, there was like a bit of credibility.

Scott DeLuzio: yeah, yeah, yeah. Well that, so okay. That’s, that’s a, that’s a good, you know, kind of context to, to have with that. Um, because that’s the kind of people you want to surround yourself with, especially if you’re about to go investing your, your [00:34:00] reputation, your money, your, your time, energy, resources, whatever it is that you’re, you’re investing into a business venture, you don’t want.

Yes men kind of, oh yeah, sure, it’s great, you know, it’s wonderful. You want someone who’s going to let you know, hey, it sucks, it sucks. Or, or if it’s great, it’s great, but you know that they’re telling you the truth. They’re not just trying to spare your feelings or, or anything like that. Um, you know, a lot of times that’ll happen in kind of social environments where people will do that, but it’s great that you can identify the fact that, no, that’s not, that’s not true.

Who these people are, they actually will tell me if it sucks, you

Eric Dominijanni: I had one of the, uh, this, you know, please excuse me for jumping in. This reminds me of a, uh, an experience I had in the Marine Corps. I had a boss who became a general. He’s out now. I loved working for him. And he used to come up to me and he’s like, and I’m just going to come up with a random situation.

Hey D, what do you think we should do? Should we go left or right? And I was like, sir, I think we should go left. And he’s like, oh, okay. But here’s the reason why we should go right. And I’m like, what do you think now? I’m like, we should go left. [00:35:00] And for this reason, this reason, this reason, and this reason.

And he was like, okay, but here’s another reason why I think we should go right. And I’m like, okay, so now what do you think? I’m like, we should still go left. And then we would go back and forth. And I finally would say, sir, my job is not to agree or disagree with you. My job is to advise you, to tell you about a lot, to give you an honest opinion.

I don’t have to like your decision, but the end of the day, I have to carry out your decision. And execute it with the amount of fervor as if it was my own decision. So you ask me if I want to go left or right, I’m telling you left, I disagree with you. But at the end of the day, if you want me to go right, we’re going right.

And he goes, we’re going right. Okay, done. And because I was never a yes man, I will never be a yes man. It’s not in my bloodline to be a yes man. I tell my children, you will never be yes people. But you can disagree with someone and that general requested me to work for him many years later because he straight up told me it’s like when everyone is like sure see [00:36:00] absolutely you’re 100 percent right general he knew that I was going to be the one who’s going to

go you know and that’s why I had a great relationship with him you know and that’s same thing with my friends your real friends are going to tell you the

truth

Scott DeLuzio: Yeah, and that’s, that’s, I guess, ultimately what you want to surround yourself with is, is people who are gonna be honest with you. Um, you know, and that, that’s just not, not just friends, but, you know, other relationships, you know, your, your marriage, your, you know, uh, uh, other, you know, business relationships.

You don’t want yes men, and, or women, or, you know,

Eric Dominijanni: least they’re probably done in the future.

Scott DeLuzio: Yeah, it does. Um, because then eventually the ugliness will rear its head, right? If you were the guy who was always cooking, you know, dinners and everything like that, and the food sucked, but everyone said, hey, it’s great, you know, thanks so much, I loved it, you’re going to keep doing it the same way every single time, and eventually you’re going to be like, you know what, this guy sucks, we can go to McDonald’s and get something better.

You know, like, and eventually, and then, you know. Now all of a sudden you don’t [00:37:00] have people coming over, and now the ugliness is eventually the truth is going to come out.

Eric Dominijanni: Yeah.

Scott DeLuzio: I try to tell my kids that as well, like, you know, the truth is way more valuable. Uh, you know, just be honest. Even if it, even if it, you think it might hurt somebody’s feelings, be honest.

You

know, if

Eric Dominijanni: hurts a little bit at the beginning as opposed to hurting more at the, uh, my, I have a, an ex girlfriend who was probably one of the sweetest women in the world and they were parents and I’ll never forget her father’s like, Oh God, my wife is going to make me a chili with, she puts chocolate in it.

I’ve been eating this thing for like 30 years, you know, something like that. And I’m like, well, why don’t you tell her? And it’s like, well, because she likes making it for me. I’m like, why don’t you tell her, because sooner or later, one day you’re going to get mad. You’re going to be in a bad mood and she’s going to make it for you.

And you’re going to be like, I hated this. I never liked this. You know, if you would have told her from the beginning, now it’s too late. She’s been making it for 30 years, 30 years. You should have told him like, you know, I like it. But next time, don’t know. Maybe you can put some heat or onions or take the onions out, [00:38:00] something like that.

And you could have done it because now every time she’s trying to make you

happy, she’s actually pissing you off.

Scott DeLuzio: Yeah, right.

And, And, that’s the thing is, is that if you said that early on, right, and like the very first time you had it, or maybe second time, because maybe the first time was, ah, you know what, maybe it was just a little off, but the second time, hey, you know what, I don’t really like this. Okay, fine.

Alright, cool, we won’t make it anymore, but 30 years later, I mean, you’ve probably lost count of how many times you’ve had it at this point, and now it comes out, and it’s like, really? I’ve been making the same crap that I thought you liked all that time?

Eric Dominijanni: Why’d you take it? I love you.

Scott DeLuzio: yeah, right, it’s like, it’s like, I kind of didn’t like it either, but I thought you liked it, you know, and

Eric Dominijanni: had that with my daughter, uh, uh, Braunschweiger. Yeah. I thought she liked my Braunschweiger because you know, I used to make it for a pate sandwiches. I only ate it because I thought you liked making it for me. And I’m like, no, I ain’t thought you liked it.

Scott DeLuzio: So, yeah, okay, so, [00:39:00] awesome, um, we got, um, We got a bunch of things like that that are going on with with you and your story and all that and how you You’ve gotten to where you are Truth honesty that is a huge thing. I think in any business relationship any relationship really is being being truthful of people Yeah, sure.

You’re gonna get some casual acquaintances who just don’t give a shit It’s just kind of they’re gonna say what they’re gonna say and that’s that’s it But identifying who these people are in your life like, you know casual acquaintance. Yeah sure. We all have those Real good friends, yeah, you’re going to have a lot fewer of them than, than the casual acquaintances, but knowing which group people fit in.

And so you, you put a little more weight into the, the good friends and what they have to say. Right. Um, but as far as, you know, from all of your experiences, if you were, if you were mentoring a, uh, a guy or gal who’s about to get out of the military, um, And looking to [00:40:00] go all in into some passion that he has, some, some, uh, thing, like you with Scotch, they have this other thing that, that they are all about, uh, do you have any advice or, um, you know, anything that you might tell them before getting into that?

Eric Dominijanni: Well, one, I think treat your company or your business like the, like the military, the Marine Corps, the army, whatever you have, your staff. Yeah. You’re not the smartest guy in the room. If you are the smartest guy in the room, you’re a moron. You can’t do it all because then the problem is if you are the smartest guy, you’re going to try to do everything yourself and you just can’t do it because you actually might be the smartest guy in the room.

So what you need to do is just find other people like you just If you, the military spent years trying to create a command or a staff, um, uh, pyramid hierarchy where, where people know what to do. Okay, you’re in charge of logistics. You’re in charge of, um, advertising. You’re in charge of this person answers to [00:41:00] this person.

Treat it like the military. It’s not broken. So don’t try to fix it. It’s what we’re used to. That’s one. Two, you gotta realize, you’re not dealing with service members anymore. You can’t call people up at 2 o’clock in the morning and say, unless they are service members, because then they might, hey, if they’re your friends, you know, or people that you’ve worked with, you can call them up at 2 in the morning.

But once you get into the real world, it’s not like that. You have a great idea at 2 o’clock in the morning, Shut up and send it in the morning, you know, at nine o’clock in the morning. No one’s answering it. Uh, three, no one is going to take care of your product. No one’s going to love your product. No one’s going to push your product more than you. That’s another one. Four, everyone is going to try to take advantage of you. Everyone wants a piece of your, Hey, let me get a free bottle. Hey, I’m going to do an event of it. Can I get a, look, they want it. So you need to, maybe I’ll use it. Maybe if I give this guy a bottle, he’s going to an event where it’ll be showcased.

So you do have to realize there’s a give and a take with that. Everyone is going to come up to you like [00:42:00] this. If you have a pizzeria, everyone’s going to come up to you, you know, let me get a free slice of pizza. You know, hey, I know, because they’re your friends. You know, and you got to let them know, it’s like, listen, when you’re doing this, when you’re coming up to me and asking me for a free slice of pizza, you’re taking money out of my pocket.

Scott DeLuzio: That’s right.

Eric Dominijanni: That’s the truth. So you need to let your friends know at the beginning like it doesn’t work that way, you know We’re buddies. We drink beers together. We barbecue together. But at the end of the day if you’re asking me for a free bottle You know, what’s in it for me to quote Joe Pesci? No, it wasn’t Joe Pesci If you pay me

Scott DeLuzio: Okay.

Eric Dominijanni: You know, like, like what’s in it for me?

Oh, you could go into an event and they’re going to have, the president of the United States is going to be there. Uh, someone from Diageo is going to be there. Absolutely. Here’s a bottle. Here’s a case. Drink it, but make sure it’s, you showcase it for me. Okay. But again, remember, no one’s going to show your bottle off as much as you are.

And lastly, this kind of, uh, this is one other thing. Um. [00:43:00] Well, if you’re getting into something like that, to me, it’s a great thing because when you have like my experience or the average military officer after 20 years, you have a wide, wide range of experience and abilities and skill sets underneath your belt.

Um, and because of that, you could, it’s so easy for you to stay in the, in the, the government system, the military system, you can, um, easily, um, you know, take off your uniform. Throw on a business suit and, um, uh, you know, make like, you know, 150 grand a year doing what you did, you know, without, with less drama.

But what about those dreams you had when you were younger? You know, that, that’s the big one. It’s so easy. It’s so enticing to, for me to stay in the system and do something with armored vehicles or, or planning or, or something along those lines. But. You know, I wanted to be a chef, you know, uh, you know, maybe I wanted to be an artist, a sculptor, you know, something along those lines.

But at the end of the day, follow your dream, follow that childhood [00:44:00] dream, you know?

Scott DeLuzio: Yeah. I like that. Uh, following your dream, following your passion. Um, and, and the other thing that you said too is, uh, guard what’s yours. Right. And, and I don’t think you said it in that many, in those exact words, but, um, you know, when someone asks you for a free product or, or whatever, um, they got to understand that.

Yeah. That wasn’t free to you, you know, yeah, sure, maybe you’re not paying, you know, retail price for it, but still, it wasn’t free, that’s still money out of your pocket, that’s your inventory, that’s your, your product, that’s, like, somebody else is willing to hand over cash to get that product from you, and, you know, If they’re not, then, then that, that’s kind of, kind of screwed up.

Right?

Eric Dominijanni: Well, yeah, even like with my bottles, my bottles go for about 40. It doesn’t cost me 40 to make it, but you know, it’s so fun. So every time I give away a bottle, you’re not losing the amount of money that you would have, you know, that it costs you to make. [00:45:00] You’re losing, you’re potentially losing 40 of a sale,

Scott DeLuzio: That’s right.

Eric Dominijanni: you know?

And it’s like, Oh, okay. Here’s just 40. So when a person’s asking you for a slice of pizza, you’re giving them three, four, five, whatever slice of pizza costs, you’re literally giving the guy 5, you know, or you’re giving him 40 for the Scott, you’re giving him your, that’s what it is, and they have to realize that when you don’t do it, you’re all of a sudden, Oh, you know, this guy is making all this money and stuff like that.

I, I’m not driving

a Lamborghini right now.

Scott DeLuzio: that’s right. Yeah. And that’s the other thing too, that I don’t think people, a lot of people realize is like when, when you’re running your own business, all that falls on you. And if you’re not doing. You know, making smart business decisions. Um, yeah, you’re not going to end up being that top dog, you know, you know, like you see in the, you know, social media, everyone, you know, happens to think that that that’s like, you know, what everybody who’s running their own business is doing.

It’s like, that’s not true. [00:46:00] I mean, you, you, you could be making 0 and still have a business, you know. If you’re not selling anything, you still got a business, but it doesn’t mean you’re rolling in it, right? So, you know, the best ways that, that your friends and family and other people can, can support you is by buying the damn product, right?

Eric Dominijanni: yeah.

Scott DeLuzio: Um, but also, you know, if they, if they’re going to, uh, you know, some sort of event and they can showcase your product, um, you know, but you got to be smart about it too. And I think that’s, that’s important. Um, you know, and that, that great idea that you said, you know, if it’s two in the morning, you got a great idea and you’re about to call somebody up and let them know about it at two in the morning, chances are in most civilian jobs, nobody’s going to want to hear.

I don’t, even if they’re, they’re a veteran, they’re probably not like, dude, it’s, it’s two o’clock in the morning. Could this wait, you know, this could have been an email, right? But, uh, um, but you know, it’s still going to be a great idea in the morning at nine o’clock, you know, wait seven hours, you’ll, you’ll be good to go.

It’ll still be a great, great idea then,

right?

Eric Dominijanni: [00:47:00] I do send out the emails still. And I go and I but I always say like, Hey, I’m not expecting an answer till Monday. You know, or whatever like that. I know you’re not going to open it, but But I’ve also had to speech with them several times. You know, like, hey. You know, this is what the, this is a great idea, but it’s a weekend.

Enjoy your weekend.

We’ll talk about it on Monday.

Scott DeLuzio: A hundred percent. Yeah. And, and, you know, the way you take care of your people who are on your team, they’re going to, they’re going to take care of you too. So I think that’s, that’s important to, to point out as well. Um, before we wrap up though, uh, I, I want you to give a, you know, an opportunity to talk about the, the company where, where people can buy the scotch and, uh, you know, find out more information about, about your company and, you know, kind of where, where the products are.

Eric Dominijanni: Yeah. Um, you can find us online. That’s number one. Uh, it’s at, uh, www. FIORscotch. com. That’s Fox, India, Oscar, Romeo, Scotch. And this is what my beautiful little bottle looks like, you know, it’s like a nice and shiny sparkly, you know, uh, uh, so you can get it there for online sales. [00:48:00] Uh, they also do an, if they don’t have the option to engrave a bottle.

That is absolutely beautiful. We’ve done it with, you know, Eagle, Globe, and Anchor, or the Army symbol, you know, symbol, the Navy symbol, your unit symbol, you know, third cap, and the names on the side, they look absolutely beautiful. So you can get it there. Also, you can get it in like, uh, we’re available in New York, New Jersey area, uh, we’re available in Washington, D.

C., we’re going to be available in Maryland. Uh, Atlanta, Georgia, South Carolina, we’re available in Florida right now. So, you know, different, you know, uh, stores, uh, you know, we’ll be available in Total Wines, uh, in Florida, but, you know, I think I, uh, and I think we’re also Total Wines in New York. So we’re at some of the larger

distributors, larger sales,

uh, uh, stores, liquor stores.

Scott DeLuzio: Yep, absolutely. So, uh, I’ll, I’ll put the link to the website on there and, and, you know, folks can either check it out online or, you know, if they’re in those local areas, they can, they can check it out in, in stores as well. Um, but we’ll, we’ll [00:49:00] definitely, uh, help push some of that scotch and, uh, uh, you know, hopefully if that’s, if that’s what someone’s, uh, You know, interested in, in getting, and especially, I would imagine it would be great, you know, with the engraving, uh, option that you, you were talking about, it’s great for, for, you know, maybe a retirement, you know, gift or, you know, something like that, change of command, all, all those kinds of things.

Uh, you know, especially coming from a veteran owned company, uh, you know, what better way to, uh, keep that, keep that stuff going, uh, you

Eric Dominijanni: And for those people out there, like, I try to keep this, you know, like, you know, obviously very, very veteran. Um, and I tell people, Hey, if you have a, I bump into people in the streets, I’m like, Hey, here’s my email address. Eric D E R I C D at FIORScotch. com. Let me know what you think about it. You know, that’s it.

I created this, not only for me, I created this for my friends, my family. You know, I created, now I created for everyone who tried it. I am not the kind of person who’s going to put a product out there that I’m not proud of. And if you look at the bottles, uh, the old, the first generation bottles compared to the second generation bottles, my second gen bottles [00:50:00] have my signature, my Herbie Hancock on the back because I wasn’t sure once it got mass produced, if it was going to taste the way I wanted it to.

So I was really worried with the first gen bottles, not realizing, duh, it’s a formula. Three parts this, two parts it’s going to taste. So the second gen actually have my name on the bag. So I stand behind my product. I’m very, very proud of it. And I, for anyone who knows me, they know I will not serve something that I am

not proud of.

Scott DeLuzio: Excellent. Well, we’ll, we’ll put, like I said, we’ll put that, that link out there on the, the website in the, sorry, in the show notes. Um, and, uh, we’ll, we’ll get some, some people headed your way. So, um, Eric, it’s really been a pleasure, uh, Chatting with you, learning a little bit about your, your background and your experiences.

Uh, and, and thank you for, uh, you know, coming on and sharing your story. Thank you for your service and, uh, your on ongoing, uh, you know, work, uh, you know, trying to try and do great things and, and, uh, you know, making veteran [00:51:00] businesses, uh, you know, stand out and be, be really great. So I appreciate everything that you’re doing.

Eric Dominijanni: I much appreciate it. It’s great to be here.