The Weekly Bev - Inaugural Edition

💵 Investing

A couple months back I announced to the vlog that I became an equity partner in Whims. This was a huge milestone for me - my first ever investment of this kind - and I got a ton of questions about it, so I figured this would be a great opportunity to dive a bit more into the story behind it, how it all came together, and what my plans are!

Discovering Whims, the better-for-you chocolate brand, felt serendipitous. Jesse, the founder, reached out to me after seeing the vlogs and wanted to send me some product. I tried it, they were delicious (I fell in love with the peanut butter cups), so Jesse and I met up in person to find ways we could work together.

As the relationship evolved, I became close with the Whims family, making videos for their socials and shouting out the products in my vlog. Over lunch one day, I told Jesse my goal was to have equity in Whims and help grow the brand in any way I could. It turns out, Jesse had been having the same thoughts about bringing me on as an investor - weirdly perfect timing! The exact details of the deal remain private, but I love sharing that I now have equity and will continue to help Whims shape their story on socials.

At the end of last year, Whims launched two new products: a caramel cookie bar and a peanut nougat bar. Currently, they’re in about 400 stores, and this year the goal is to dial in the manufacturing process for all three SKUs and get into some bigger retail spaces. As Whims continues to grow, I'm grateful for the opportunity to be a partner in the mission!

I’m also looking to continue learning about the private investment space. I have a huge passion for consumer packaged goods, I feel like I know a promising product and brand when I see one, so I’d love to hear if any of you guys are interested in the space. If you know of anyone growing a CPG brand, if you invest professionally, or if you’re like me and just love the space, let me know!

😻 Content I’m Loving

I saw Dune Part Two last Saturday with Cooper and Conner, and it was absolutely incredible. We went to a 7am showing at Universal, so we could get good seats at a 70mm IMAX showing - early but worth it. The theatre being packed was a cool sight to see, it feels like people are still excited to go for the theatre experience when it is a movie like this. Fun fact: there are only 12 theatres worldwide that showed the movie in this kind of format.

The movie itself was flawless. I won’t give any spoilers, but Denis did an amazing job of following up Dune Part One and building out the world that is Dune. I loved the way Greg Fraser was able to capture both scale and intensity without crazy camera moves. The composition, performances, and music all combined to create great emotion as well. I thought Timothee played the perfect Paul, and watching his character arc from Part One was impressive.

Highly recommend going to see it! I left the theatre feeling so satisfied and excited for what Denis will continue to do with the world of Dune.

🥐 Cooking

I get a lot of requests to slow down during the vlog and explain my recipes (lol), so I’ll drop this fire bagel ingredient list on you to start…

• Bagel (should definitely be sesame, toasted)

• Tofutti Cream Cheese

• Three Happy Eggs

• Heirloom Tomato

• Fresh dill

I know that’s pretty straightforward, but don’t sleep on this section…What kind of recipes would you like to see in the vlog?

❓️ Mystery Links

Bing, Boop, Bop, Beep

🤳 Vlog Highlight

I’m thinking this section will be a spot for me to highlight the most liked and/or engaged with vlog of the past week. Plus, dive into the behind the scenes, answer your most burning questions from the comments, and talk about some things that get left on the cutting room floor.

First things first, you guys like the horizontal format! It was great to see positive feedback here because I agree! It’s a nice change of pace and feels very cinematic (as a lot of you noted).

This entire Disney trip was great. This trip was to celebrate finishing the Disney Creator Lab, which I was a part of late last year. All of the creators who I had been seeing on Zoom were in attendance, and it was really fun to finally meet in person. We got to experience each park, which felt like the first time to me because I have not been there since I was a kid. The Disney team also held certain parks open exclusively for us creators - Pandora world was open late, Animal Kingdom was open early for yoga, and Magic Kingdom was open early for photos at the castle. Overall, it was really cool to be a part of the creator cohort and establish what will hopefully be a long term partnership with Disney.

• 5 referrals = your name will be featured in an upcoming vlog 🥵 

• 15 referrals = you’ll be invited to a Zoom with your’s truly 😊 

• 25 referrals = you’ll receive a variety pack of Leisure and three bags of Whims…I know, absurd 😍