What led you to start your business?
In 2007 I worked a year as a stewardess on mega yachts in the Caribbean. Wanting to witness the other extreme in the world and to help, I volunteered in Uganda, travelling from rural village to rural village administering HIV testing. From those experiences I formulated a goal: To build a multi-million dollar for-profit company that could then fund a non-profit organization that could really create change in the world by treating a cause instead of a symptom. A daunting task… and one that I avoided for years until it was easier to take on the challenge then to not take on the challenge…
I had no idea what my business would be nor how to start a multi-million dollar company… So, I allowed myself to get sidetracked. Instead, a friend who was a bootlegging beer vendor on Wreck Beach, a clothing optional beach on the point of Vancouver, Canada made a suggestion – I come sell stuff on Wreck Beach. After trying to sell legal products with very little success, I gathered my last remaining dollars, bought a bottle of booze, a vaccum sealer and Mr. Freezie packaging. I cut open the Mr. Freezie, dumped the liquid, replaced it with a margarita, resealed it and voiIa – I made my first Boozie Freezie. I introduced that product to Wreck Beach and grew it from selling 20 units in a day on my own to on my best day having 6 sales people, a production team at my house and selling 666 units on my best day. But the law didn’t like this. The police tolerate individual bootleggers on Wreck Beach but they don’t like an operation like I built evidently. So, one day they broke my door down on a search warrant for alchohol…. I got in a wholeeeee lot of trouble. Already being a recognized figure from my Wreck Beach work, the media got a hold of the story and my case went viral.
From almost the first day I launched my product on Wreck Beach, people would constantly tell me I should take this product legal and pitch it to Dragons Den. But the goal seemed so daunting. After my legal troubles were behind me, I still had no idea how to pursue my goal of making a Boozie Freezie legal. So for 5 more years, my goal was pushed aside. Finally, in 2018 I started to make the smallest steps toward creating a liquor company. The final straw which really motivated me to pursue my goal was my brother in law kidnapping my sisters kids. Finally I got fed up that I didn’t have the means to help her hire legal council. By not pursuing my for profit, I wasn’t able to create my non-profit and also help the people I love. So enough was enough. Finally, I was choosing a more difficult path because I could no longer ignore my goals.
In 2018 – 10 years after I launched Boozie Freezies on Wreck Beach I incorporate my company Wreck Beach Beverage Corporation, DBA Wreck Beach Spirits. 1 year later we launched our first line of canned cocktails and in a couple months we will be launching our line of Boozie Freezies! Our bootlegging past is very much part of our brand and has helped us foster brand recognition almost instantly! I’m still known as “Freezie Girl” as I was years back on Wreck Beach and people still approach me to talk about the beach. It’s been a winding road, but the path is now amazingly clear and this daunting task has turned into a reality.