EP 47 A Conversation on Sobriety and Alcohol Culture with Amy from Happier Hour Starts Now

Have you ever paused to consider the role of alcohol in your life and how it's portrayed in popular culture? My guest did exactly that, and it changed her life! Join me in a thought-provoking conversation with Amy Leahy, the brilliant mind behind Happier Hour Starts Now. Amy walks us through her personal journey of embracing sobriety, unraveling the intricacies of gray area drinking, and challenging our perceptions of what's considered 'normal' when it comes to alcohol consumption.

Amy's candor about her path to an alcohol-free life in February 2023 sparks a vital discussion about honesty and self-reflection concerning our own relationships with alcohol. We also get into the impact of alcohol on the hospitality industry, shining a spotlight on the uplifting trend of more inclusive drink menus. This episode is your ticket to a profound understanding of alcohol-free living, the rising tide of non-alcoholic beverages, and the exciting changes we're seeing in our culture. So, buckle up!

Get in touch with Amy!
www.instagram.com/happier.hour.starts.now 

Thanks to Giesen 0% Wines for sponsoring this podcast episode. 

Thanks to Giesen 0% Wines for being our exclusive non-alcoholic wine sponsor!

Connect with Deb: @Mocktail.Mom

• Snag a FREE Guide for Ordering Out Made Easy
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You are loved. Big Time Cheers!

Transcript

Deb: 0:01

Welcome up friends and welcome to the Thriving Alcohol Free Podcast. I'm your host, deb, otherwise known as Mocktail Mom, a retired wine drinker that finally got sick and tired of spinning on life's broken record called Detox to Retox. Let this podcast be an encouragement to you. If alcohol is maybe a form of self-care for you or you find yourself dragging through the day waiting to pour another glass, I am excited to share with you the fun of discovering new things to drink when you aren't drinking and the joy of waking up each day without a hangover. It is an honor to serve as your sober, fun guide, so sit back and relax or keep doing whatever it is you're doing. This show is produced for you with love from the great state of Kentucky. Thanks so much for being here and big time cheers. Hello friends, it's Deb. Welcome back to Thriving Alcohol Free.

Deb: 0:51

If you can hear some background noise, it's because they are installing fiber cable in my neighborhood and they are literally in my front yard right now digging it up. If you hear anything, or cocoa barking, that's what's going on today. But most important is right now I am going to be chatting with Amy. Amy, welcome. Amy is Happier Hour Starts Now is her Instagram, but there's periods in there. I want to make sure I say it right. We'll have it in the show notes, but it's Happy your Hour Starts Now with a period in between. Each word correct On your Instagram handle yeah, okay, and that's your website too. Is it your website? Happier Hour Starts Now.

Amy: 1:23

I'm like all over Instagram, so that's the best place to find me Instagram is the playground.

Deb: 1:28

Yes, it's the best. That's how you and I connected was on Instagram. I love Instagram. Isn't it fun? It is like a fun. I guess there's parts of it that aren't fun, but I try to stay in the fun part of it, like you know, not get into the drama and just it's so fun to connect with you know other people in the space I know.

Amy: 1:47

If you're really careful about the content that you're consuming, it can totally be a very happy little place, because I have my Happier Hour profile and all the stuff that I follow there which the algorithm is aware of, so I see all kinds of cool people. And then I have my personal Instagram that I've had for so many years. That's mostly like and you know that sort of thing.

Deb: 2:08

Oh, we can talk about that.

Amy: 2:09

So it's very different. It's depending on what kind of mood I'm in. That depends on, like what, which one I'm scrolling.

Deb: 2:16

Isn't that so true? Okay, yeah, because over on my Facebook I still see yeah, like the Bravo, I like Bravo-lebrity.

Amy: 2:22

I never heard that term, but I still adore the Bravo Leopardy's and now I have such a different lens in watching the shows.

Amy: 2:30

Oh yeah, and how much how boozy, how boozy alcohol consumed on these shows the one that, like I posted on my feed about the Real Housewives of New York, the recent iteration, because there are two incredible women on that, the new season, that are alcohol free, just unapologetically alcohol free, and I love that as a direction of the show and no one talks about it, which, like I love even more because it just is what it is. But I think my comfort show is below deck. Oh really, the amount of money these people pay to go on these boats and just black out and embarrass themselves, it's just wild.

Deb: 3:11

They don't remember, they have no idea.

Amy: 3:13

No, hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Deb: 3:15

But all right, do you have a favorite Housewives? I know this is like not even for anybody who's listening and you're not into Bravo. I'm sorry, we're just going to have a little moment here because I don't know, amy, we're just meeting for the first time and it's so fun. Yeah, Okay, it's very fun to connect because I do. It's like my guilty pleasure and probably my. Do you have a favorite of the Housewives? Do you like the?

Amy: 3:32

Housewives. What's your favorite city?

Deb: 3:33

Yes, oh, if you had to pick one, only one, you can ever watch again.

Amy: 3:38

I know, and it changes. You could ask me this in a couple of months when, like, a different season had come out.

Deb: 3:43

Yeah, I feel differently If Bethany comes back to New York.

Amy: 3:47

That'll be my favorite again. Yeah, yeah, I've been on this most recent season of New York. It felt like very current and very fresh to me. I loved it. But yeah, I'm also like probably my number one on Bravo is Vanderpump rule.

Deb: 3:59

Oh, really Okay. I love Beverly Hills and, speaking of sober, kyle Richards. Yeah, kyle Richards, now is over a year alcohol-free.

Amy: 4:08

And I love the way she's been talking about it.

Deb: 4:11

She's been talking about it.

Amy: 4:13

Because I think it's something the way she speaks about it is very much how I identify, kind of like, with my own alcohol journey and I just love, bethany, being able to see these conversations take place in a space that you know isn't really doesn't really talk about that kind of stuff Typically happens in the past.

Deb: 4:32

Yeah, it's changing. Things are changing for sure. Okay, so you have been alcohol-free since February of 2023. Yeah, right, and Would you say so? You were like gray area drinker. What was your? Yeah, how did you? How did you break up with your alcohol? How did things happen? How was the breakup for you?

Amy: 4:49

I, I, Was going great, I think. In hindsight I definitely identify as a gray area drinker. I didn't really know even what that term was previously and so it was very eye-opening. In all honesty, I think the vast majority of drinkers are probably gray area drinkers if they're very honest with themselves and their consumption. I think our as a culture, a society, our definition of Social drinking is very, very skewed in alcohols favor. They're the ones benefiting big alcohol.

Amy: 5:26

And yeah, I mean I had just drank Consistently since my 20s, since college. You know when it starts out as as like all fun and games and like Party girl and like what's a hangover. And then you move into your 20s and you're like working and you're in the city and it's cute to go out for drinks and brunch, and then 30s is like mom life and you know line on the couch. And then all of a sudden I turned 40 last year and you know I just felt it was very much like around the house. So around this time last year I was really thinking about it like I I didn't feel good, I felt sluggish, I was like the heaviest I'd ever been. I was convinced something was up with my hormones and Perhaps was. I just felt kind of flat. My skin didn't look great, I just felt myself and you know I had been to that point and still am really Help-conscious.

Amy: 6:21

You know it's a part of my lifestyle. It's certainly not I'm not like your girl, for you know the healthiest recipes in the world, but, like you know, I've always been incredibly active and that's very much a part of like my routine and I'm into like wellness and meditation and All of that. And I just like hit me like a ton of bricks. I'm like I need to stop drinking like it. I need to try it, and you know I'm doing all of this other stuff to feel good. And there's still alcohol in the mix. And it was actually I'm a creator in this space. I think it was Suzanne from Sober mom life.

Deb: 6:54

Oh, yeah, yeah, I'm gonna kick myself if I'm getting that wrong.

Amy: 6:57

I don't even remember how she came up in my my personal feed.

Deb: 7:02

Isn't that funny, the algorithm when you were thinking yeah, they agreed it, yeah.

Amy: 7:07

And she said something that stuck with me and to this day is still has, and I absolutely credit this to her. I don't want to make it seem like this is my own, but she said you've tried something to the effect of you've already tried it Alcohol's way. You've done all I had done my entire adult life with alcohol's way. So I actually stopped drinking for lent Really in February and I thought I'm just gonna take this break over lens. I'm like a challenge kind of person like I like a goal and I'm like I'm just gonna see. I'm like trying to figure out what's going on with, like my health and wellness and I'm just gonna see if this does anything. I Probably superficial, to be honest. I was like people lose weight with a stop drink.

Deb: 7:47

Right.

Amy: 7:47

Right, yeah, that's what I, that's what I see. And Then very quickly I was like okay, I understand the fuss, really, you felt better, right away.

Amy: 7:58

I did. I just felt like lighter and I just thought better I, and I didn't even realize that I wasn't feeling. It wasn't like I was having hangover every day, that I was Drinking to black out like. But I think that that's why these conversations are so incredibly important, because, you know, in my mind and I think a lot of people's minds, there were kind of two, two avenues to take, which is either you drink and alcohol is a part of your life, and for me, I've always found myself to be more like a habit drinker. It was just a habit like same there. I never thought do I really want to drink right now? If there was a drink available, I was going to drink it. If there was an activity that involved drinking which, to be honest, most activities nowadays- Halloween trick-or-treating now.

Amy: 8:46

Yeah, your mom's is a drinking holiday, oh really, and I was going to drink it, I didn't even think twice. Um, so I always felt like either you drank or you had a problem with drinking, and and it was just so incredibly eye-opening to really Realize this entire space in between. And so, yeah, I'm just like very passionate about talking about that, because I never saw myself like in this place.

Deb: 9:13

Yeah, yeah, and do you even see, like the I don't want to call like a heavy blanket, but just like that, like it was what it was putting on you? You know, yeah, like once you're not drinking, you don't even realize, like that, you weren't. Maybe you do realize you aren't feeling good. Obviously, you didn't, you did realize it. You know what I mean. Like that, you feel Much better. You're like, wow, just removing that one thing, how it makes such a difference. Absolutely, yeah, okay, so you stop. You're taking lent. So what did you drink during lent? Did you know about non-alcohol Cocktails? Did you know about the options?

Amy: 9:43

No, very little, and that's why it was like a real interesting Journey for me. But of course, the algorithm is always listening, so didn't I come across all sorts of accounts like yours and many others, and there's so many people in this space that are just incredible. But I mean, I started with like the lowest point of entry, which is like a heideken zero you can get, don't say odulls.

Amy: 10:09

No, that's not the vibe, but like a heideken zero or, in my area, like Guinness zero, is very commonly available and I think very, very good and funny enough, I didn't even like Guinness when I was drinking.

Deb: 10:22

Oh funny.

Amy: 10:23

But I like it again in zero.

Deb: 10:24

Yeah, okay. And where? You in Chicago? Is that right, I've been Chicago, yeah, okay. Are you in down? Are you in the city or you're in the suburbs? Okay, so.

Amy: 10:32

I live technically in Chicago but I live in a very neighborhood-y Area of the city, so just a little bit outside the like immediate downtown city center.

Deb: 10:42

But Chicago, yes, such a fun thing. Okay, so, yes, so you started like Guinness and Heineken. And then where did you go after that? What were you? What did you start drinking? What are you loving that you're drinking?

Amy: 10:53

Okay. So, oh my god, where do I begin with? Like what I'm loving. It's a long right now, interestingly, when I was drinking, you know, like you you have your, your favorite handful of drinks because we've all over time, right like so many years, you Crafted your little go-to list, depending on the activity, and so it was like kind of fun and I mean I'm still having a lot of fun but it was really fun at first to realize like it felt like the world is my oyster, like there's so much cool stuff to try and some of it, most of it is really really amazing.

Amy: 11:29

But just like anything, just like with drinking alcohol, there are things that people will like that you know others don't, and vice versa. I, uh, I like love a, like a modified mule, like anything with like a like a ginger beer I feel is like really good and like a na margarita is just super yummy. But I was always like a beer, wine, per seco kind of girl. So I've definitely crafted like some of my own little list In that space. So that's what I like, just want to see everywhere.

Deb: 12:00

now, that's right. What are they? Do you have certain ones that you wanted to mention?

Amy: 12:04

It's like everybody's favorite. I athletic brewing is the most Superior na beer on the market, I believe, objectively better than the vast majority of boozy beers. Wow, their product is just Unbelievable. Yeah, it's so, so so.

Deb: 12:21

I have a box of the athletic light right behind me here.

Amy: 12:24

Yes, deliciousness, it's absolutely absolutely delicious For wines and particularly on my mind now with like holidays and holiday entertaining. I love odd bird. Um, they're doing things in the wine space that I think are just like revolutionary and their whole Mission and mission statement, um, I really connect with. I love that company. So they're blanc de blanc which you can also buy in cans fun, oh.

Deb: 12:53

I know that.

Amy: 12:54

It's per seco, like absolutely. It's the closest thing I have ever Tasted in these couple months. I'm making it sound like this is like you know, like one journey.

Deb: 13:05

It is, it's fine you can do a lot of drinking in a couple of months. You don't have to drink your to find the good ones. Yeah, yeah, I'm sure you've kissed some frogs along the way here, you know I mean right, we have to. Yeah, we try some. Yeah, it's not for me, you know, or maybe somebody else loves it, but it's just not my thing. Yeah, yeah, that's fine right, um.

Amy: 13:24

So their blanc de blanc is a great per seco alternative, absolutely outstanding. And they're red. I apologize off the top of my head. I can't think of um. No, no, that's fine.

Deb: 13:34

I haven't tried theirs, but there's a lot of buzz about them. I've been seeing speaking of like what you see in your feed. I keep seeing them in my feet, so I was just people who are trying them now if they're growing in the marketplace.

Amy: 13:45

But I need to order some of that, so I was like a total, like red wine girl and that's been the hardest thing for me to find like what I believe is like a proper replacement and the odd bird option is by far heads and tails above the rest. I also, for a white, really, really like laudas and I hope I'm saying that correctly, yep Very good they're white.

Amy: 14:09

you could fool a lot of people with that, and that's my biggest like litmus test, Like could I fool somebody with this? And a lot of the products on the market. Now you can.

Deb: 14:20

Yeah, I mean, I think, like you were saying, like with athletic you could hand somebody that beer, a beer drinker, and they're not necessarily gonna be like this is non-alcoholic right. I don't think so. I don't think they would know. Yeah.

Amy: 14:29

No. So people are just doing incredible things that I'm enjoying, trying it all, and then I just try to share what I like, cause I think that there's a lot of people like me that still want to. I haven't. I have to say I've been incredibly fortunate. I haven't really had to change my social life much. I still like to do all of the same things I did before drinking, but it's probably born out of like a sense of entitlement or something. But I'm like I want stuff now available everywhere I go.

Deb: 15:00

Yeah, yeah. So do the restaurants where you go to do they have things on the menu, or are you having to kind of help the bartender craft something? Or how has it been ordering when you go out, like when you're continuing to socialize, cause not all the places have it?

Amy: 15:13

No, no, and it's very hit or miss. I feel like in Chicago I believe in this space is like a little bit ahead of the game, but it's very, very hit or miss and I know that we both experienced that. So my go-to's kind of vary depending on the place. So where I live, like on the South side of Chicago, it's very like Irish Catholic, a lot of bars. So if it's like a very casual, super casual place, I know that I can fall back on like a, a Heineken zero or again a zero. Just go the beer route. It's the safest.

Amy: 15:48

I might have like one or two of those and then I'll just switch my club soda with a lime. If it's some place that has a cocktail list, like actual proper cocktails, that's where I feel like I can have a little bit more fun and what I will kind of do is just look through the like, the profile of ingredients and kind of. I know in my head like how would that taste without the vodka or the tequila? Do I like the other stuff? So then it's a little bit easier to say you know, I kind of like this or something like this. Is there something that bartender can do without alcohol? And when all else fails, I ask for a ginger beer, club soda and a lime.

Deb: 16:30

Delicious when all else fails. I love that. Yes, when all else fails yes.

Amy: 16:34

Yeah, you know I've also. I'm not shy. I do this with restaurants in my area that we frequent often. But you know, if I'm going with friends and it's gonna be like a you know social occasion or whatever, I am not shy about calling in advance and saying I noticed that you don't have, you know, a non-alcoholic wine on your list. Like I've done that before, I've been going out for like a proper dinner where you feel like everyone's gonna be drinking wine and I have found at least that people are very accommodating. That's great and, you know, serve me from that bottle and make everything really separate. So you know, it's just, it's about still feeling like you're taking part and a part of everything, but just removing alcohol from the equation because it doesn't do anything for me?

Deb: 17:20

Exactly, exactly, right. It has. It's not adding anything and just to be able to still be a part of the party, be included. Have the restaurant, have something that's inclusive on the menu. Yeah is awesome.

Deb: 17:32

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Deb: 18:18

Giesen comes from the Marble region of New Zealand, which is widely available in global markets. If I can get it here in Kentucky, you could probably find it where you are to. I hope you love it. And how's your family responded to you? Have you had any like pushback from people that you're not drinking, or I mean you're in your first year, so are they like, oh, come on, try to. You know, come on, have something with me, or they don't care?

Amy: 18:40

No, thank God. No, that is not my story and I know it's not everyone's and I'm incredibly empathetic because I know that it is. It is not the case for everyone. It can be hard for the people in your life to see a different version of you and you know maybe how they interact with. That, as we know, probably says a lot more about them than it does you. But no, I have like the most amazing family and the most incredible group of friends and I have like a little interesting you know piece to my story in that my husband is in recovery and has been for a number of years, so his journey is very different from mine. I continued to drink after he had, you know, had been in recovery and entered recovery and so, yeah, I think that's like an interesting little piece to he's like my biggest fan.

Deb: 19:31

Oh, that's so amazing, yeah, and that you can be on the same journey, different kind of tracks of it, but to both be walking the lifestyle of not drinking.

Amy: 19:41

Yeah, now I say that everyone's like no one ever has tried to pressure me to drink or anything like that. Everyone's incredible and actually super interested in trying the stuff that I'm drinking. But I also feel like I'm at the point of like I'm just so blissful with my little NA journey that I don't know, I probably wouldn't even notice if they yeah, you're like, isn't that?

Deb: 20:05

you know what I love? That you just said that cause it's like you just put your, like your blinders on. You're like my ears are plugged, like I don't even hear you. You know, like you know when somebody's trying to like put something on you. It's like I don't even hear you, like I don't need that yeah.

Amy: 20:17

I love that. No, it's like I'm being selfish in a good way, I hope but just kind of focused on what this looks like for me and you know how much better I feel and how much more I feel like I can show off the thing, Amazing, amazing, yeah, and you work full-time, you're working and you work in the hospitality space.

Deb: 20:36

Is that right?

Amy: 20:37

I do, yeah, so I work in sales and marketing in the hotel space, which I think the same can be said for a lot of corporate cultures, but hospitality in general is like very busy.

Amy: 20:48

Yeah oh yeah, but corporate culture is as well. I mean, I think it's over, you know, generations. I mean going madmen days and before. But you know, office and corporate culture is incredibly alcohol-centric. And going out for drinks after work and going out with clients and going to conferences, and everyone's drinking heavily. And, you know, in the hospitality space, where we're constantly taking care of other people, I think that, you know, for a number of reasons, it's very alcohol-fueled, and so I think that that sort of kind of gives you a different, a skewed perspective as well, right On like as to how you feel. Like drinking is just everything, like it's everywhere, it has part of everything you know.

Deb: 21:35

So what advice would you give to, like, maybe, hotels or the hospitality industry on how they can, you know, accommodate those of us who aren't drinking and, you know, bringing in more options and stuff?

Amy: 21:46

Yeah, I mean I have like a two-pronged answer. The first is that it's just smart business. It's smart business to start to move your cocktail menus and the focus of your food and beverage to this space, because it is exploding and it is only going to become more popular and, I believe, will be the norm. Well, I mean, I hope in my lifetime, but definitely for I mean I have young children I just think everyone is going to be drinking so much less than we have in generations past. So, first and foremost, you know every company is worried about their profits, especially.

Amy: 22:24

You know now it's smart, it's just a really, really smart business strategy. But also you're just gonna get so much love from your clients and customers. And to really think about being inclusive and offering inclusive drink options that are just as thoughtful as your boozy options, it really all kind of starts there. And then I feel like it really opens up the conversation and I feel like it's happening more and more with hospitality professionals and there are groups that support hospitality professionals and, you know, on non-drinking journeys. But I just I think that it is really the future in a lot of ways and to miss that is a real missed opportunity in the hotel and restaurant phase, I think, like what you said, like it's well just to include people, but yeah, it's money in the drawer you know, it's cash that they're missing.

Amy: 23:19

I mean, I love to say it's like all out of the kindness of everyone's heart, but it's not Right of course, yes, yes, it's just not Wouldn't that be nice? Yes, wouldn't that be nice but it's just a smart business proposition. You can sell these drinks and charge the same exact amount for a really thoughtful, really well-crafted and curated NA cocktail or NA wine and you just have really happy people.

Deb: 23:45

Yeah, yeah, thank you to your venue. Happy people who aren't stumbling out, yeah, who are coming back. Yes, okay, what's like? What's the most thoughtful non-alcohol cocktail that you've had out to eat? Or like that you've experienced when you've been out and about or In a restaurant or somewhere. Is there something that comes to mind?

Amy: 24:00

Yeah, there was one. I was actually to work like a little happy hour with my team. This was very, very. I was very new on this journey and I did not know like what to ask for, and so I was kind of timid in my ordering. I didn't really understand what like the capabilities were, and once the they realized the server realized that I was not gonna be Drinking for the evening. They had a lot of fun with it and I remember Specifically this like very smoky, almost like a mezcal sort of margarita, and I completely forgot about that until you just brought this up. And I'm so glad that I was reminded of it, because now I want to go back there, now that I'm like a little more in my stride and, yeah, go back and I want to have that drinking gun. That was it was. It was like very generous of them to approach it in that way. I thought that was really cool.

Deb: 24:49

Isn't that awesome. Oh, good memories, yes, good memories. Yet it's funny. I was chatting with somebody yesterday. She was out Heather from ditch the drink, she's in Las Vegas and we were recording a podcast episode and she was staying at the Cosmopolitan. She is staying at the Cosmopolitan hotel and I was like, oh my gosh, when I was out there it was very early, my alcohol-free journey at the chandelier bar and at the time they did not have any mocktails on the menu or not I'll call cocktails.

Deb: 25:13

But the bartender made me a Delicious, spicy mojito, like I've never forgotten it, wow. But she said now they actually have some on the menu. You know, not all cocktails and stuff. So to be able to, you know, walk into a place like that, have a memorable drink, be a part of things, not feel excluded, you know, and not have to be like I have a virgin daiquiri, no, I know. So, yeah, that's, that's wonderful, okay, yes, I love to hear that. A smoky, nice smoky drink that you had, delicious, okay. So you have little kids. You set your little power, your kids.

Amy: 25:44

I do. I have twin girls that are seven and then we have a little guy that's four, third second grade. Yeah, oh, you are busy, you're busy.

Deb: 25:53

Yeah, how are we recording this episode?

Amy: 25:57

I know I'm gonna watch you after this. Yeah, no, they're so awesome and they, they like my, my daughters, they're my twin girls. They think that it's like it's super cool, like they think this Instagram thing I mean to them, I have like a you know, you know present isn't it fun? Yeah, I'm to have your kids Like it's the lab on Instagram, but they think it's fun.

Deb: 26:23

That's so sweet, they're encouraging. Yeah, yes, and you have a. You have four-year-old.

Amy: 26:26

You said and I have a four-year-old. She's in preschool, oh my gosh, yeah, yeah, yes, okay.

Deb: 26:32

So yeah, were you like would you drink when you put them to bed? Was it like get the kids to bed? Or, like you know, it's like, okay, now I'm pouring my wine, you know?

Amy: 26:40

this is gonna well, no, this is gonna sound really like bad to say, but no, I don't think I even waited until they were in bed.

Deb: 26:46

Yes, sorry, sorry. Yes, I, I didn't.

Amy: 26:50

It was like making dinner like I'm gonna have a glass of wine? Yeah, no, would I be stumbling around the house? No, but it was not unusual even remotely for them to see me with a glass of wine and I just um, I mean I kind of like love that we're doing something different. And you know, whatever, whatever that means for them is you know their own kind of journey. But they are seeing an example of, well, you know, both me and my husband, my husband in recovery, who does not drink at all, obviously does not do mocktails or anything that resembles an alcoholic drink, and I love all of like the NA and zero proof stuff, so they think it's like fun. You know that I'm like mixing up different things and trying stuff, so I guess it's just it's awesome for me, because I grew up around a lot of alcohol, a lot and, and it's awesome for me to think that like they're just seeing something different.

Deb: 27:48

You're showing them a different way and that they're so young to be able to, you know, taste drinks with you, like my. I have two girls my one daughter's about to be 22 and my younger daughter's 16. But she was 13 when I started my Instagram and she's a very discerning palette, like what I remember when we go and she's we had the bottles of mingle and we're on Instagram. I think we were doing a live or whatever and she would stand there with me and you know, and drink with me and stuff, and I'm talking to the camera and she's next to me. I didn't see her. She's literally got the bottle and she's like finishing it off and then the trash cans right there where we're standing. She opens up, throws it in. I mean, she's just like Just the other day she opened up our little refrigerators. I have two little beverage refrigerators. She opened up. She's like, mom, we need some RTD's.

Amy: 28:36

Who are you? She totally knows.

Deb: 28:40

She totally knows. Yeah, she loves the trejo spirits, the non-alcoholic. Oh, I haven't tried that I haven't tried that. It's right, I have the box.

Amy: 28:47

Yeah, I actually have to order another one because people love it.

Deb: 28:50

It is so good. I mean, there's so many. I feel like we could go on and on about all the different ones that are so delicious, which is amazing, but I will say that is becoming one of my favorite non-alcoholic tequila. So, okay, I feel like we could talk for hours and I know you have work and you have children and you have so many things happening in your life. But thank you so much for sharing your story and just your joy in this space. You're joy because it's not, it's not somber to not drink, it's not boring. There's so many options and Just be sharing, you know, your passion With others is a huge encouragement to those who are window shopping sobriety, you know, maybe they're just scrolling. The algorithm is putting you in front of them and to be able to see, you know the fun isn't over. It's not over, yeah drink less.

Amy: 29:34

Give it a try. I promise you will not regret it. You will never, ever, ever regret it. You'll never say I wish I drank last night.

Deb: 29:43

You're so right, you're sorry and, like Suzanne said, like right you gave alcohol, try like we did that. We tried it that way. Now let's try the alcohol freeway and see how it is. Just test it out.

Amy: 29:53

Well, this was a delight. I loved talking with you. Thank you so much, thank you, thank you.

Deb: 29:58

Thank you for being my guest. I'm so happy we got to do this today. Big time cheers to you for tuning into the thriving alcohol free podcast. I hope you will take something from today's episode and make one small change that will help you to thrive and have fun in life Without alcohol. If you enjoyed this episode and you'd like to help support the podcast, please share it with others. Post about it on social, send up a flare or leave a rating in a review. I am cheering for you as you discover the world of non-alcoholic drinks and as you journey towards authentic freedom. See you in the next episode. You.