Ownership

Stephanie Styll

Owner, Killjoy

January 02, 2026 01:14:38

Brandon Styll kicks off 2026 with a New Year's Day conversation with his sister Stephanie Styll, owner of Killjoy, a non-alcoholic bottle shop with locations in East Nashville and Berry Hill.

Episode Summary

Brandon Styll kicks off 2026 with a New Year's Day conversation with his sister Stephanie Styll, owner of Killjoy, a non-alcoholic bottle shop with locations in East Nashville and Berry Hill. Fresh off giving a TED Talk on the psychology of alcohol, Stephanie unpacks how alcohol hijacks dopamine, disconnects you from your intuition, and steals the joy from everyday activities like watching a sunset or paddle boarding. She and Brandon share their personal sobriety journeys, with Stephanie marking five years alcohol-free since her 40th birthday.

The episode is built as a motivational kickoff for Dry January, walking listeners through what Killjoy carries (non-alcoholic beer, wine, and spirits, adaptogenic drinks with mushrooms and herbs, kava products, and THC and CBD beverages) and how the staff helps customers find the right product no matter where they are on the spectrum. Stephanie outlines roughly 12 events Killjoy is hosting in January, starting with a free tasting market on Sunday the 4th in Berry Hill.

The conversation also detours into emotional regulation, breath work, journaling, Enneagram coaching, and how restaurant operators can lead with empathy rather than yelling people into the walk-in. It's a candid, very Nashville sibling conversation aimed at anyone in the industry curious about drinking less in 2026.

Key Takeaways

  • Alcohol floods the brain with dopamine, which trains you to associate fun activities like socializing or watching a sunset with drinking, and removing alcohol can reset that and make ordinary moments enjoyable again.
  • Anyone can become addicted to alcohol because it is an addictive substance, so even moderate drinkers sit somewhere on the addiction spectrum.
  • Dry January works best when paired with community, mindset work, and tools like breath work, journaling, and stillness, rather than white-knuckling it alone.
  • Killjoy stocks non-alcoholic beer, wine, and spirits alongside adaptogenic drinks (lion's mane, reishi, cordyceps, ashwagandha), kava products like Cava Haven and Cava Hall, and low-dose THC and CBD beverages, with staff trained to guide newcomers.
  • Killjoy is hosting around 12 Dry January events including a free tasting market on Sunday January 4th in Berry Hill, plus tastings with Little Saints and Alt, a Wellness Wednesday on the science of quitting drinking, and a Non-Alc 101 class.
  • Practical reset tools the hosts use: a five to ten minute lie-down with no phone, four deep breaths to reset the nervous system, Epsom salt baths in the dark, and a 30-second hug with your partner to break out of conflict patterns.
  • The Nashville Area Restaurant Alliance Connect Winter Social is January 13th at Perrin Bakery in Berry Hill, featuring Belle Meade Bourbon, Wild THC beverages, Fat Bottom Brewery, and Empire Distributing.
  • Ben's Friends is a recovery community specifically for hospitality workers, with a local meeting at O'Be (referenced as Oh Coup) in Nashville for industry folks who want sobriety support among peers.

Chapters

  • 01:18Welcome to 2026 and Episode SetupBrandon Styll opens the new year, previews the Dry January theme, and introduces his sister Stephanie ahead of next week's episode with Charlie Nelson of Belle Meade Bourbon.
  • 03:46NARA Connect Winter Social PreviewBrandon details the January 13th NARA event at Perrin Bakery with Belle Meade Bourbon, Wild THC, Fat Bottom Brewery, and Empire Distributing.
  • 05:16Meet Stephanie Styll of KilljoyStephanie joins for her first full interview, and they reflect on aging, hope for 2026, and her recent TED Talk.
  • 08:38How Alcohol Hijacks DopamineStephanie explains how alcohol floods dopamine and trains your brain to associate fun activities like sunset paddle boarding with drinking.
  • 12:41Addiction Is a SpectrumThey discuss why alcohol is addictive for anyone and how Dry January helps reset your relationship with it.
  • 17:00Why Sophisticated NA Options MatterStephanie talks about giving sober and sober-curious drinkers a glass that lets them feel normal at parties without the side effects.
  • 18:09Killjoy's Dry January LineupRundown of the January 4th tasting market in Berry Hill plus events at Framework, Joyland, Gramps Garage, USN, and Wellness Wednesdays.
  • 19:30Inside the Killjoy Berry Hill ShopA walkthrough of the adaptogen room, NA replacements room, and THC room, including kava, cordyceps, mushrooms, and Cava Haven and Cava Hall.
  • 28:20Who Killjoy Is ForStephanie describes their five-star staff, the lending library, GLP-1 customers, and why everyone from heavy drinkers to alcoholics is welcome.
  • 35:33Brandon and Stephanie's Sobriety StoriesBrandon talks about learning to feel emotions instead of drinking them away, and Stephanie shares quitting at 40 after years of being sober curious.
  • 46:23Trusting Yourself After QuittingThey discuss how alcohol disconnects you from your intuition and how sobriety led Stephanie to entrepreneurship and Brandon to NARA.
  • 49:18Stillness, Baths, and the PausePractical tools for connecting with yourself: phone-free lie-downs, Epsom salt baths, breath work, and the 30-second reset hug with your spouse.
  • 56:00Enneagram, Patterns, and LeadershipA long sibling tangent on Enneagram 7s and 6s, conscious leadership coaching, and bringing empathy instead of yelling into restaurant kitchens.
  • 01:05:38The Killjoy Afterparty PodcastStephanie explains how she and her partner John interview people about life after alcohol and write a custom hype song for each guest.
  • 01:09:58Final Thought and Ben's FriendsStephanie invites the sober curious to explore Killjoy, and Brandon points industry listeners to Ben's Friends for hospitality-focused recovery.

Notable Quotes

"Whether you use it once a month or every day, you're somewhere on the spectrum of addiction. Anyone can become addicted to alcohol. It's an addictive substance."

Stephanie Styll, 13:13

"Watching a sunset is something that should fill you. Being out on the water just enjoying time with your partner, that should be a really enjoyable activity. When you give up alcohol you reset your levels and stuff like that starts to feel good again."

Stephanie Styll, 11:52

"I love socializing sober. I show up in a way where I think I'm actually funny, but I don't feel anxious about it. Before I had a lot of anxiety, but I was drinking, so who knew what could happen."

Stephanie Styll, 21:50

"If you have any part of you that is considering what it would be like to cut back or quit drinking, I encourage you to explore that. That's your intuition talking to you, and there's a huge community of people doing the same thing."

Stephanie Styll, 01:10:07

Topics

Dry January Non-Alcoholic Beverages Sober Curious Killjoy Adaptogens THC Drinks Sobriety Nashville Bottle Shop Mental Health Restaurant Leadership
Mentioned: Killjoy, Perrin Bakery, Funky Griddle, Common Ground, Baja Burrito, Gramps Garage, Framework, Joyland, Pelican and Pig, Fat Bottom Brewery, Belle Meade Bourbon, La Hacienda
Full transcript

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01:05Welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio, the tastiest hour of talk in Music City. Now here's your host, Brandon Styll. Hello Music City, and welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio. My name is Brandon Styll, and I am your host. We are powered by Gordon Food Service. Happy New Year to you and yours. We hope that 2026 is the best year of your life. We are happy to put 2025 in the rearview, and today we are starting off with a really fun episode. We're talking to Stephanie Still, who is my sister, but not only is she my sister, if you listen to the show you know that she owns Killjoy, which is a non-alcoholic bottle shop. Here we are 2026, people like to do New Year's resolutions, and there's this little thing that people do called Dry January. So I wanted to bring her in.

02:11She recently gave a TED Talk, and I was blown away by the TED Talk because, I mean come on, it's a freaking TED Talk. It was so good what she did. I'm going to post some clips about it, if she'll let me, that I personally recorded while I was there. She talked about the psychology of alcohol and how it steals your joy and all of this stuff, and if you're somebody who's out there participating in Dry January, you're just like, hey it's the New Year, I'm going to do something different. I'm not going to drink or whatever it is. I wanted to create a motivational episode for you. Now that doesn't mean that you need to quit drinking or any of that stuff. That's just a, this is just a brand new New Year's resolution episode. Next week we're going to have Charlie Nelson, who owns Bell Meat Bourbon. So there you go. We're going to have both sides of the coin here coming up. I want to say congratulations to Charlie Nelson. They just welcomed a new baby boy into their family. During the interview with Charlie Nelson, he had his phone seen right there because he was about to, he was like, my wife's in labor, I might have to go real soon. He's in pre-labor. I'm like, oh okay, great. So that episode's going to be really fun, but today, this episode with Stephanie, obviously she's my sister, so we talk about a lot of the alcohol stuff. We talk about what she's doing at Killjoy, and then we also just kind of go way off topic for a long time. That's just what we do. It's my sister. I mean, I love her to death. She's amazing.

03:31And I hope that you find her to be this amazing. You can hear her on past episodes. We used to do something called Brandon's Book Club. She would read the books and come in and we'd do an interview about it. Maybe I'll bring that back. But we are very excited for 2026. NARA is taking off, and there's been a lot of parties I'm sure that you've hosted or been to, and there's one more little party, and it is on January the 13th. It's a Tuesday, and it's going to be at the Perrin Bakery. If you are a restaurant owner, if you're a general manager, if you are a chef, we'd love to have you there. This is a straight up, just a community thing, the Nashville Area Restaurant Alliance. It's called the NARA Connect Winter Social. We are going to have Charlie Nelson. He's going to be there. Porn, Belmead, Bourbon. We are going to have wild THC beverages. If you're doing the Dry January, if you're curious about THC beverages, we're going to have Andy Herrera there. He is so sharp and wild. They're like the number one brand in the world, and they're huge, and they're doing really good stuff. We're also going to have Fatbottom Brewery. They're going to be there giving away free beer. I believe we're going to have Empire Distributing pouring different wines and stuff. We'll have lots of beverages. Perrin said she's going to put some different pastries and stuff out there. It's just fun. It's from four to seven.

04:51It's at the Perrin Bakery in Berry Hill, and I'd love for you to be there. Go to naranashville.com and register, and then I'll know that you're coming. I can plan for you and know that you're going to be there. This is New Year's, and this is our episode with Stephanie Still. We thank you for listening. You are listening to Nashville Restaurant Radio. Super excited today to welcome in Stephanie Still. She is the owner of Killjoy. She has two locations, one in East Nashville and one in Berry Hill. She is the queen of all things sober curious. She is her most important title, though, is She Is My Sister. Stephanie, welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio. Thank you so much for having me. Is this your first time as a guest on the actual podcast, not in a book club, like an interview of you? I don't know. We did a podcast with Kristen Baer one time, but we haven't you and I gone in and done a podcast. Yeah, I think it's the first one. Okay, good. I was right. Today is New Year's Day. Happy 2026. We're here. Or is it happy 2026? I don't know what we're going into this year. That's like every day is like another insane day, and I don't know if I should be excited or scared.

06:31Yeah, same. I'm excited, though, because it is a new year. We're starting off the new year, and I'm really I'm hopeful. Is that a good word to use? I'm hopeful. Yeah, of course, always be hopeful. What are you hopeful about in 2026? Sorry, the very first thing I thought of is something I definitely shouldn't. I think we all thought it. It's okay. You can't say that. You know, I'm getting older. We're all getting older. Just grateful for everyone getting older. I had a colonoscopy this year. I'm getting old. Yeah. What am I hopeful for in this year? You know, a lot of people coming into caring for each other and caring for themselves, maybe. All right. Well, it's an easy segue into sober curious. This is January, and there's a massive growing movement called Dry January, which is one of the main reasons why you're here today, not dry January itself, but to talk about new year, people have resolutions.

07:48A lot of people are participating in dry January. A lot of people have resolution to drink less or work out or do a lot of these things. And you recently gave a Ted talk, by the way, there's a massive. I was so incredibly blown away by your Ted talk. And I was honored to be there for the Ted talk. But like. First off, just congratulations. Thank you. But and I want to get into a lot of things that you talked about. I think there's a lot of different reasons why people wouldn't drink. There's people who are alcoholics, people who have the allergy, as they say, to drinking. Then there's people who there's just a movement of, hey, it's poison. I'm putting my body and I'd like to be healthy. I'd like to be present. I made a decision in my own self that I would never be in control of my faculties when I made decisions again in my life. I was never going to make a decision that wasn't my own decision. I wasn't going to let some substance cause me to make a decision I wouldn't normally make on my own, which has generally has negative consequences. Right. You talked about the science behind it and you said that climbing a mountain is really special. You said that there's a let me let you tell the story.

09:01Talk about the idea of alcohol creates a sense of euphoria on a general basis for everything that you do. So you kind of need that on a regular basis just to feel normal when you don't drink and you climb out and you get natural endorphins and it's all natural. Right. Yes. I loved that. I want to start there. That's okay. Okay. I mean, the thing that for me was kind of a game changer was when I learned about how alcohol impacts your dopamine. Cause basically what happens is when you drink, you're just dumping dopamine and that feels really good. What is dopamine? Do you know much about like what dopamine does? Like when does dopamine activate? It's a neurotransmitter, right? Yeah. It's just a brain chemical that makes us feel good and it makes you want to repeat a behavior. So when something happens and you feel a lot of dopamine, then you're like, oh, that was good. We should do this again. So I guess, you know, in olden days, if you found a great berry bush or something like that, maybe you'd get a hit of dopamine and then you would like remember and want to repeat that behavior. And so we are training our bodies with alcohol that like, oh, this is good. And we often associate it with the things we're doing while we drink.

10:28So what happens is then when you do those things, but you're not drinking, they don't feel good. And so what happens for a lot of people is they start to associate socializing, spending time with people they enjoy, whatever, with drinking. And then if you remove drinking from that equation, it's no longer fun to do the things that would otherwise be fun. And it's not just because the social stigma of drinking together is fun. Like the alcohol enhances that. And so if I'm just hanging out with you, it's like, well, this isn't fun. We should be drinking. Like we need to be doing something. You can't even enjoy just genuine. And you use the example of hiking a mountain. You can hike a mountain and watch the sunrise and watch, or the sunset would be a better example. Watching the sunset and be like, wow, this is really beautiful. Yeah. So, okay. Sorry. I was a little confused. So what I actually said was I talked about how, I think I talked about how Elisha and I used to go, Pat, that's my husband, used to go paddle boarding at sunset. And we would always drink. We'd always take like two cans of beer each. And when I learned about this, I thought about, man, that was so fun to go paddle boarding. And we would always drink like two beers while we did it. But the idea of doing it without beer didn't sound fun. And so that for me really rang true. And I was like, oh, watching a sunset is something that should fill you. Being out on the water, just like enjoying time with your partner, that should be a really enjoyable activity. And what happens when you stop drinking or when you give up alcohol is that you kind of reset your levels. So stuff like that starts to feel good again. And I think that's where Dry January helps you redefine your relationship with alcohol. The idea is not drinking for a month and going and doing outdoor activities, doing things that are fun, that you start to kind of be able to appreciate those things without

12:30having booze and kind of maybe towards the end of the month when you haven't had it a while, go experience some things and see how you feel because you don't need alcohol for that at all. I will be the first one to tell you that. Right. I mean, I think something cool for me is that, you know, the Killjoy Shop, people come in all the time who have quit drinking and I talk to them every day and they're always like, my life is so much better. Stuff is so much more fun. It is the exact opposite of what people tend to think. Like people think if you quit drinking that you're not going to have fun anymore because of what we just talked about. And the truth is that once you get on the other side of the addiction and alcohol is addictive, which is another thing that I don't think people necessarily realize. It's an addictive substance. So whether you use it once a month or every day, you're somewhere on the spectrum of addiction, somewhere. Yeah. I think that we have this perception that, oh, well, I haven't had four DUIs or I haven't lost my job because of this or it's like, yeah, you haven't had this, you haven't hit that yet, so to speak, but there is a need, there is a want. You can't do things without alcohol and that is an addiction. Yeah. Well, and I mean, it's an addictive substance. So even if you're not currently addicted to it, but you are using it, you're somewhere on that spectrum. So like that's why anybody can become addicted to alcohol, anyone. And I think that's something that a lot of us, that's another thing that I believed was only alcoholics can get addicted to alcohol. It's an addictive substance. Literally, anyone can become addicted to it. I never thought about it like that. I know that for me, it took me about two years before I had my first non-alcoholic beer and I was in Asheville, North Carolina. I was on a work trip and it was like, we were doing like a trends tour, we were going all these restaurants and eating and drinking everything. And it was like, okay, this is really

14:32hard. I really wanted to be part of this group of people that were drinking. And I finally just said, it's been two years. I don't need to drink. It was kind of stressful for me. I don't know. I was still relatively early in my sobriety. And I went, let's do one of those Heineken non-alcoholics. And it was amazing. All of that stigma of I'm the non-drinker kind of went away. And I felt great. I went to a Christmas party the other night and I brought a bottle of non-alcoholic wine that I purchased at Killjoy. And we're at the party and nobody at the party was drinking. Here's the funny part. I was the one, not one person had one sip of alcohol at this party. And I was the one who had a non-alcoholic wine. I was the only one with a wine glass and nobody was drinking. So it was really kind of a funny thing that shows what kind of a person I am. I need that. Running a restaurant is tough. Staff turnover, rising costs, and the endless tasks that bog you down and take you away from what you love. Let Adams Keegan lighten that load. They're a privately held Tennessee based restaurant and hospitality focused outsourced HR, payroll, and benefits firm. The team at Adams Keegan removes the administrative burdens of HR administration, payroll benefits management, garnishments, unemployment claims, compliance, 401k, and so much more. From their proprietary HRIS platform to seamless payroll and competitive benefits that keep your team smiling, they've got you covered. Adams Keegan lets you focus on what you do best, creating unforgettable dining experiences while they handle the rest. Essentially, think of Adams Keegan as your back office HR department right here in Music City. One of the many things I love about Adams Keegan is that unlike big publicly traded companies out there, they have an incredibly high standard of customer service. And that's what we all need is really good customer service in these areas.

16:29They don't give you a 1-800 number and make you fill out an IT ticket submission. They surround every client with a team of experts, all based right here in Tennessee. You can call them today at 615-627-0821 or visit adamskeegan.com. That's A-D-A-M-S-K-E-E-G-A-N.com for your free HR consultation and see how they can create a customized solution to help your restaurant thrive. But it's really cool that that is an option now that you guys provide so many different products. Well, it's really different for every person. But for a lot of people who drink socially, having a sophisticated alternative so you can have the same glass in your hand, similar flavor, you don't have to feel left out. You can have the same experience that you used to have. You just don't have any of the negative side effects. And for me and for a lot of people, it's amazing. It opens everything up. Now you can go to parties and feel normal. And you can drive yourself home safely and sleep good and make your good decisions. I have a lot less fights with my wife now that I don't drink. And she doesn't drink either, but it's like a whole... Same. We don't fight. We don't argue. We do. Me and Jennifer are not fighting at all anymore. It's a good thing. Dry January is a big deal. It's a national movement. What do you guys do for Dry January? What does it mean to kill joy? What do you see people come into your stores? Are they curious? Do they want to learn more? Are you guys doing educational stuff to them about kill joy and dry January? Yeah, absolutely.

18:09The first thing that we are doing is on the Sunday, the first Sunday, we're having a huge tasting market. So that we're going to have about 20 or more brands sampling different drinks. So it's a free market that everybody can come to just to try some new stuff out and find your new favorite drink. We're also going to have like a mobile sauna and a food truck. So that'd be Sunday the fourth. Sunday the fourth. Just in a few days here. We got one, two, three, four days. So Sunday the fourth. Yes, that's at Killjoy Berry Hill. Okay. So that's on Columbine Place. What's the address? Something Columbine? 2813 Columbine Place. It's like kind of right behind Funky Griddle. It's super easy to find and there's free parking all over the place. Yeah, like I keep talking about common ground on this show because I love that restaurant, which is where the old yellow porch was. It's kind of right back behind there, but back behind there. I don't know how to say that, like where it is. It's on the other side of Bransford from there. So like kind of behind Baja Burrito more is where we are. Yes. It's a great way. There's a lot of great restaurants over there by the way. I love the Berry Hill area. It feels so old school Nashville to me. Like there's just these cute little restaurants and like free parking and I don't know. I love it.

19:21It is really, and your store is really beautiful. Like just the way it's set up and all of the different things there. Like I didn't know what to expect when I walked in. I was just like, oh wow. And you have everything. So if you're not a drinker, but maybe you like to go Cali sober or you want to do something that is like, you want to experiment with like THC or there's a lot of different adaptogens out there. I don't know what the hell an adaptogen is. I just know that word and that it's apparently something good for you in a beverage, but there's like mushrooms and there's Kava and there's all these different things. Walk us through some of the different things that you have at Killjoy. You have obviously non-alcoholic beer, a huge selection of non-alcoholic beer, some of the best selection I've ever seen non-alcoholic beer, non-alcoholic wines, non-alcoholic spirits. That is all just a replacement for alcoholic things that are socially acceptable. Then you have other things that could actually be mind altering. Yes. Let's go into some of that stuff. Okay. So first of all, an adaptogen is a plant or a mushroom that helps your body adapt to stress. Oh, I need those. It's something that's natural and outside of that, there's a huge gamut. So a lot of people think of all the functional mushrooms, which is like lion's mane, reishi, turkey tail, you know, there's all kinds of mushrooms that all have different functions. Cordyceps. We see a lot of lion's mane, reishi and cordyceps in the drinks.

20:48And then things like ashwagandha, magnesium, lemon balm, valerian root. So these drinks, some of them advertise that they're going to give you a buzz. You're not getting much of a buzz from these. It's a little bit like taking vitamins. As I was saying, I think my wife takes almost all of those in individual vitamins every day. So yeah, you can also take them in supplements, but it's super fun to get them in your drink because you know you're drinking something that's beneficial for you. And some of them you can feel right away. I think the mushrooms are some of the most powerful ones. Like for me, cordyceps are extremely stimulating. And a lot of the drinks, if you're looking for a little bit of energy, and I do recommend if you're trying to socialize sober, a little caffeine can be a friend because you're going to be tired before other people. Yeah, it takes you a lot more mental energy to do that. Especially a lot of people drink because they are introverted and they feel like it makes them more extroverted. Yeah. And sorry, just a sidebar on that is something that I notice now is I love socializing sober just because I trust myself. I show up in a way where I think I'm actually funny, but I don't feel anxious about it because before I had a lot of anxiety, but I was drinking. Who knew what could happen? And now I'm like, no, I pretty much know how this is going to go.

22:10And I'm going to talk to who I'm going to talk to. And when I'm tired, I'm going to bail. And that's great. So anyway, love socializing sober. I'm going to cut you off. I want to get back to the different lines, the different caffeine is where we were at caffeine and going out and hanging out. Or it's more like the idea of going on a date. If you're serious about finding a partner, there's dating for dating and then there's dating for like, I'm looking for a partner. I said, do not go out and have a drink, go have a cup of coffee or do something other than go have a drink because you immediately change who you are when you start drinking. And if you want to authentically get to know somebody and you go out and you start drinking, it's kind of a waste of time because you're not getting to know who that person authentically is. You're getting to know this drunk version of them or this inebriated or buzzed version of them, which they can then alter to be whatever you want to be. And eventually you're going to find out who that person is in real life after a while. And why waste your time? Yeah. I thought that was really interesting. Just that idea of you want a date, don't go on a first date and have drinks because it's not indicative of who people actually are. Maybe sometimes it is. I think it's becoming a lot more normal now too, which is so cool.

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24:50When any of those scenarios happen, you pick up the phone, you dial 863-409-9372. Matthew answers, he goes, how can I help you? You tell him your problem. He's your friend. You know him. Why would you not have an agent that you work with every single day? Any of these situations right here, you need guidance, you need support and Matthew Clements and his team at Robbins Insurance are there to provide it. You should call him today. I'm gonna put that number down one more time. That's 863-409-9372. Call Matthew Clements today. Okay, so we have drinks with caffeine. We have a lot of drinks with stuff that's going to help you chill out, which is probably the number one thing people are looking for. I think this is part of the reason why people drink is because they want to relax at the end of the day and we don't know how. So the drinks can help, but also getting some other tools in your tool belt is a really good thing to do there. One thing that does give you a little bit of a relaxed feeling is cava. You mentioned cava. It's K-A-V-A, not the Spanish champagne. It's a root from the South Pacific that is very cool in that it kind of numbs your lips and tongue when you drink it.

26:03So I like that because alcohol kind of does that actually. And is it carbonated like these drinks? There are different formulations. Cava itself is a root that's ground up, so it's almost to make it the way that they traditionally make it, it's more like a tea. Okay, well I'd say a lot of people with the bubbles mimic ethanol. So if you're drinking a cava drink that has bubbles, if it makes your lips and tongue kind of feel numb and then the bubbles in the back of your throat mimic ethanol, so it kind of feels like you get a... Well there's a lot of people... So cava on its own is very very earthy. It kind of tastes like dirt. And so we've got a bunch of fruity sparkling drinks where they've masked that flavor. And then now there's some cava spirits. Cava Haven and Cava Hall are two of our top selling beverages. And they're awesome because they taste great. They're like a ginger lemon kind of a flavor. And you could just mix them with sparkling water. So they are not carbonated. They're like spirits. But those are really awesome products that can be mixed with other things. And they do actually give you a feeling, like a relaxed social kind of a feeling.

27:15But they don't give you a head change. So it's different than THC because you're like relaxed in your body but not in your head. So kind of like what CBD does. Okay, I love that. So at Killjoy and Berry Hill we have an entire room of adaptogenic drinks. Then we have an entire... It's like the main room. The main room. The checkout is the main room. That's the main room because people are becoming more and more interested in that. They want something that's going to promote their well-being. We also have a lot of people who are pregnant or whatever. So those people are going to the other room. And then the third room that we have is the THC room. So we have drinks with THC and CBD in them. Mostly low dose. We did take the space over from Grass House. So if you're interested in some high dose things, we have some of those on sale that we're trying to offload that we got from Grass House. So come grab those if you're into that. Grass House? Grass House was the business that was there before us. Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah. And I imagine that's a THC dispensary. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So we bought some of their inventory from them. And now we're trying to get rid of it.

28:20Okay. So it's on major sale. And then we have our regular drinks. And in general, if you've never tried CBD or THC before, Killjoy is a great place to come because we can walk you through where to start, how to start, what's going to happen, et cetera. And we have a lot of low dose options. That was my next thing is I say, so when you come in, do you train your staff to like recognize where people are at in their journey and kind of walk them through and educate them? Because there's gotta be a fear. If you're like me and you're an alcoholic and you walk in and you feel any kind of shame about it, it's okay. My dude, it's okay. You're in the right place. You're amongst friends. Like there's no shame, no blame, nothing. Like it's okay. And there's people there that are empathetic to understand that want to just help you find a product that's going to be right for you. That's going to get you where you need to be. You also have like lots of, I don't want to call it swag. You have like candles and you have cards and stickers and bags and other little things that are kind of kitschy.

29:27Is that a bad word to use to say it? They're kind of like funny sayings and things on them. Like, can you, do you still have like the library you can rent books? Is that at your East Nashville? We have a little check out library in East where you can bring books if you want or check out books. A lot of them are, you know, like sober biography kind of books and, or like just personal development stuff. And it's kind of been people bring things and take things. We are a supportive place for wherever you are on your journey. Most of our customers still drink. A lot of them are coming in because they want to start drinking less and they're not necessarily sure how to do that. A lot of our customers have quit drinking. A lot of them identify as alcoholics and everyone is absolutely welcome. Whether you don't want something, if you don't want something that tastes like alcohol at all, we could do that. If you just started taking a GLP-1 and alcohol is not agreeing with you, we can help you with that. We have low sugar options. I mean, we, we see all kinds of people, but one thing that is awesome at Killjoy is that our staff are all people who are like on fire for this movement. Like that is who we hire.

30:42And I'm so proud that we have all five star reviews because when you come in, like people, they genuinely want to spend time with you. They want to help you find something that you love. It's people who are super passionate about this. So please come in and plan to hang out. I love that. You know, the whole thing is just such a great vibe. I remember us talking about this years ago and just to see it all come to fruition. Are you still doing the thing at Gramps Garage? We actually have stopped doing that, but I think we're going to do one in January. Oh, that's back to the original question of dry January. What all different things you do? You have a dry January market on Sunday. My ADD is acting up today. I could talk to you about a million different things. I'm jumping all over the place. I'm sorry. We, so we have a ton of events scheduled for January. We are doing, I'll give you a quick rundown. We've got the market and then the following weekend. So next weekend we have an event with Framework on Friday, an event at Joyland on Saturday. And then we also are doing a tasting with Little Saints on Saturday.

31:47We'll be featuring Little Saints all week so you guys can come in and try it. We'll have specials the week after that. We'll be featuring the brand called Alt doing a drink tasting with them. I think we're going to do the night at Gramps Garage and we're going to do another night at Framework. I'm going to host a university school of Nashville night class on Non-Alk 101, like teaching that. We have a Wellness Wednesday with about the science of quitting drinking and we're going to do like a vision board event. So I think there's about 12 events on the calendar. Wow. Yeah. And this is the busiest month of the year for you. Yeah. That's interesting. How many people go through dry January and then you see them over and over again throughout the year? A lot. How many people finish dry January and go, I'm going to make this a dry February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December? I mean a lot and it's fun because I see people who did dry January last year and are still going. But I do want something about dry January that I tried to do dry January several times before I quit drinking and was not successful because I was just white-knuckling it through it. I didn't have community and I didn't have the right mindset about it. And I think the mindset is a really big portion of it. Like you need to believe that you're doing something really beneficial as opposed to just giving something up. So like really focusing on all of the good things. And you'll see a lot of stuff that's like, oh, you're going to feel better and this is what's going to happen to your body in one week, two weeks, three weeks, et cetera. And depending on how much you drink, you may not experience a radical life change in one month. And so I just want to like temper people's expectations. If you're a super heavy drinker and you drink every day, it's going to take more than a month. I'm sorry. Well, here's the thing. I think a lot of people miss, right? And you talked about that support. Very excited to be partnering with C and B

33:50linen. If you know me, it's my number one topic of conversation is linen companies and how shady linen companies can be. I am just disgusted with how the business practices work in this industry, which is why I was so excited when I found C and B linen. They're out of Waynesboro, Tennessee, and they don't charge any fees. So the linen price that you have, whatever that first linen price is, that's your price. And so you may say, well, every year they must raise the price on this seven year contract, right? No, because they don't do any contracts. There's no gas fees. There's no clean green service fees. There's no replacement cost. There's nothing. The only price you pay is the price that you pay for the actual product. I know it's too good to be true. No contracts. They do formats. They'll make custom formats for you. They do fresh linens, cleaning supplies. And guys, I just did a tour of their facility and it is immaculate. It is state of the art. I'm going to post pictures on my Instagram. You can go find them and you can see how absolutely gorgeous this is to the point that they even wash and sanitize every one of their used laundry carts. It's just absolutely amazing. If you're looking for a linen company, you can trust who wants to earn your business every single week. Go back and listen to our episode with Jason Cruz, the owner of CNBLenny and hear it from his straight from his mouth, exactly what they do.

35:21Or you give them a call at 931-722-7616, or you can DM me at Brandon Styll on Instagram for my exclusive pricing through the Nashville Area Restaurant Alliance. A lot of people who drink that much are typically drinking for a reason. They don't realize, I had no idea why I was drinking and I didn't drink in the morning or in the daytime or anything like that. But at the end of the day, I drank because I didn't want to feel emotions. I was kind of brought up to be a man. Don't be a wuss. You know, one of our grandparents would, you know, that's kind of your reward. You get done with the day. You be a man. You drink. That's what you do. And it's like, okay, when you're taught that, you just think that's what it is. And then when that doesn't serve you anymore and you stop drinking, the thing for me, the biggest change, I didn't have like any kind of DTs or anything. What I had was emotions. I started having emotions and I was like, what the fuck is going on? Why do I feel this way? What is this? I feel angry.

36:27I was like crawling out of my skin because I was so mad or I was sad or I didn't, and I didn't know what to do with that because typically when those emotions would happen, I would say the words that everybody says, I need a drink. I need a drink. I don't want to feel this way. And my Enneagram seven tells me I'm trying to avoid pain. That's the thing that I'm trying to avoid. And so I did that my whole life. So one of the things I had to learn was, Oh, these things are good. Emotions are really good for you. And when you can learn to feel your emotions and welcome your emotions, when that anger comes, you kind of stop and take a pause and breathe a few times, like learning breathwork. Don't do dry January. If you don't do any breathwork, like the breathwork is huge. Like stop for a minute, pause, breathe, feel your anger. I go in my car and I'll grab the steering wheel and scream as loud as I can by myself and express the anger out. Don't hold it in and let it come out on somebody else. Feel your anger, feel the way through. If you feel sadness, take a minute. Thank the sadness for being there. That that's, this isn't about, that's an indicator.

37:35It's part of the human experience that something is going on and then feel it and then work through it. So many of us just use alcohol instead of doing that process. And I think that the heavy drinkers in dry January will start feeling those emotions. And that's the thing that pulls you to say, I need a drink or you'll wait. So put a plan together as to what you're going to do. Brené Brown's book Atlas of the Heart was amazing for me just to learn places I go when, like the different emotions that you have. That book is like a dictionary of emotions, basically. Basically. Yeah. And it's an, it's a roadmap of your heart of all of the different emotions you can have and where they come from and when they might happen and what you do, like what, how you know, how you identify what you're feeling. Cause I didn't know. I like, I literally, since I was like 18, that's what I've been doing since I was like able to like get alcohol. I was drinking. And so it was nice to at 40 years old, learn about emotions. What's your journey been like? Like when you first, you know, your story, your five years and a few months now, right?

38:52You're October 1st and I'm October 28th. I'm like almost a full year ahead. And as far as like how long we've been doing this, but you decided on your 40th birthday, was that it? Can you tell us your story behind like why you decided to go alcohol free? Yes. So, I mean, I was a little bit different than you. I feel like I was someone who drank socially and I drank for fun. I felt like I, because I, maybe because I'm a girl and was socialized this way, but I did, I was able to feel emotions and drink, but I'm not good at having an off button, you know, and I would go out to have two drinks and then I would be out till three in the morning or whatever, because that's also something that alcohol does is it, you know, makes you make some bad decisions. I joke that I have the allergy. I can't have just one. Yeah. I can't have a glass of wine. I'm drinking the whole damn bottle. Yeah. I mean, and who would, who would just want to have a glass of wine? These people, they're like, ah, I do you psycho, but not me. Yeah, no, not, not most people listening to this either, by the way. I mean, it's pretty, the interesting thing is that like nothing I did was abnormal in our society or in my group of friends or at a corporate job or whatever. You know what I mean? I wasn't living life on the fringe, you know, and this is something I talk about in the Ted talk. Like no one ever told me I needed to stop drinking. I was always very responsible. I never drank and drove or did anything like that. Yeah. I was just like everybody else too. You, did you have a bottle of Tito's in your grass catcher in the garage of your lawnmower that you refilled the bottle that was in your freezer? Did you have them? Everybody has one of those, right? No. Oh shit. Okay. I did not. I did not. I was, I was a heavy drinker, but so that's why I, I mean, I think that spectrum is really interesting because like I was on an end of the spectrum towards heavy drinking, but not quite, not quite where you are. Um, and I mean,

40:58and I was realizing like I'm getting older. I don't feel good. This isn't serving me. And then of course, so the pandemic year, I'm a new mom and I work at hands on Nashville where we had the tornado in March of 2020. So we had the response to that, which was very, very stressful. And then I'm working from home and I have, my baby was less than a year old. Um, just a lot of stress and I'm at home, there's alcohol. I'm not driving. I'm responsible. My kid can't even walk. You know what I mean? So like I'm drinking more and more. It's just kind of ramping up. I think that happened to a lot of people. You're like, well, it's three o'clock. I got nothing to do. And we would go for like long walks around our neighborhood. You and I would go hiking all the time. Push the baby around in the stroller and just like have a couple beers or whatever, you know? And I just knew, and it's talking to you and talking to other people, like, you know, I knew it wasn't working for me. Like what you had, and you had tried a few times when we would go hiking and you'd be like, so what's this like for you? And I'm like, it's kind of amazing. Like I didn't, I kind of went through, kind of what I just told you a minute ago, like just, I'm feeling all these feelings and I have these and I wake up in the morning and I feel better. I'm just telling you all these little things and you're like, that sounds great. And then you'd be like, I'm going to do it. And then like a week later, you'd be like, well, we want to go to Mexican. And when you go to Mexican, it's kind of like cheat for like, do you want a margarita? Who wants to go have la hacienda?

42:27You know, it's like, and then there's a fish bowl in front of you and you're like, well, we'll start again tomorrow. So I mean, I did go, like I would go, I mean, for probably five years, I was thinking about trying to quit drinking. So I was sober curious and I was reading books and I would go for a month or two here and there, like taking breaks. But I feel like I'd always come back to it for some kind of occasion or something like that would just get me back into it. And then once you're back into it, it's like, well, whatever. So yeah, I don't know, I don't know what in me actually triggered that, but I knew even before my 40th, like I knew I wanted to quit and I went several months that summer without drinking, but for some reason, I couldn't get over the hurdle of like drinking on my 40th birthday, which was so weird. So looking back on it today, what do you think about that? Your brain, like where it's like, I need to, I need to have one final send off kind of a thing. Like, what do you think about that? I don't, I don't think about it. Like is what it is. It's how it, how it went down for me, you know? And I'm, I'm fine with that because I feel like for whatever reason, that's how it happened. And I, maybe because I did something really similar with smoking. So like I smoked in my teenage years and in my twenties, and I was always trying to quit in my twenties.

43:52And I went years in my twenties without smoking, but no, I would just like slowly get back into it. Like I'd have one at a party and then I'd have one a week later. And then like, I'd feel bad for bumming them. So then I'd buy a pack and then I'd just like smoke a whole bunch of cigarettes and then I would stop again. And so I decided I wasn't going to ever, ever have another drag of a cigarette on my 30th birthday. So on my 30th birthday, I completely stopped smoking like officially like that was okay. My mind is made up. I am never having another drag again. And I did it. The crowd loves that one. They're very proud of you for that crowd. I think I had something in my mind where I was like, okay, my 40th birthday is going to be that, but with drinking, like I've spent all these years kind of researching and learning what are my triggers and what makes me want to drink. And now I'm ready. I'm really ready. And I feel good about that. I feel the same way. Like, okay, this is I made that decision. I'm never going back. I'm never questioning that decision. We're moving on. And that feels fantastic. So as of October 3rd, 2020, 2020, you said no more alcohol. Yeah. What's been the biggest change in your life since then? Like what have you gained from this besides like money?

45:15I mean, like that's the obvious one. Yeah. I don't, I don't know that that's real because non-alcoholic drinks are cost about the same amount as alcohol. Well, I mean, versus like going out. I mean, yeah. Super Source develops and distributes high quality cleaning products and supplies as well as delivers wear wash, housekeeping, laundry programs, and food service training. They partner with restaurants, golf and country clubs, hotels, and resorts, schools, universities, and healthcare institutions. Save time and money and reduce inventory by utilizing their high quality products and engaging with their highly trained service specialists. If you're looking for wholesale cleaning products like dish machines in Nashville, Tennessee, they have you covered. Listen, guys, this is way more than a dish machine and chemical company. They do not make you sign a contract. They earn your business every single week. And let me tell you, I will personally vouch for Jason Ellis and his entire team over at Super Source. If you want a dish machine and chemical company like this, give them a call 770-337-1143. And if you are a member of the Nashville Area Restaurant Alliance, make sure you tell them that you get the special NARA pricing. I mean, the biggest change in my life is that I've become an entrepreneur.

46:29Like, that's a huge change. And I don't know if that would have happened if I quit drinking or not. But I feel like it's absolutely where I'm supposed to be. You talked earlier about how you make decisions and I feel like I'm living so closely aligned with my values. And I love that. I love that too. Yeah. That's the best. It's the best feeling in the world. It is. And I mean, I was not happy with my work prior to, you know, opening Killjoy. That resonates a lot with me today. Yeah. As I'm starting this new, it's not really new yet, but like the NARA thing and like, you got to do what serves you the most that makes you feel the most authentic and you can go to bed at night and feel like I'm doing good work today that makes sense for me and my family and all the things. I think, I mean, something else I talk about in the TED talk is how alcohol disconnects you from your intuition. So it's what you talked about. Like, you don't want to make decisions that are not aligned with who you are. And alcohol removes that connection. And we end up getting further and further from where we want to be and even trusting ourselves, knowing ourselves, all of that. I mean, I think one of the things that really surprised me after I quit drinking, like I was talking about was just being able to trust myself. And I didn't know that I didn't trust myself before that. Just like when you go out drinking, how you're like, I don't know what's going to happen tonight. Like, I don't want to drive home tonight, but here I did the me, I go to a hockey game and I'm like, I taking clients out. Don't drink too much. Don't be an idiot.

48:08You'd never really, I always ended up doing too much. And then getting home, my wife would be like, how'd you get home? Like, I drove. She's like, you're drunk. I'm like, no, I'm not. It was just a constant. Yeah. But I mean, there's all kinds of stuff like that. And there's a lot of things that are way, way more subtle, like staying in a job that's not the right job for you because you're not listening to the little inner voice that's telling you this isn't right for you. Staying in the wrong job, the wrong relationship, all of these things that are massively important for your quality of life. You know, if you're not really taking time to connect to your inner self and listen to that little voice, you know, what are you doing? You're just going through the motions. We get, we get on autopilot. Yeah. You're not being intentional with your own life. You just get up in the morning, look at my phone, and then you get dressed, you go to work, you rinse, repeat. Yeah. Any recommendation? How does one do that? How do you center yourself enough? I mean, obviously alcohol, not having alcohol is great, but if somebody's going through dry January, when is a good moment for them to stop and how do you take that inventory?

49:18So some things that I do, and this is just me personally, but I mean, I love journaling. And so a big tool that helped me a lot with quitting drinking is taking bubble baths. All right. Because the thing is, is people, and I see this every day with people that come in the shop, we don't know how to relax. And our phones are a major problem. Getting up in the morning and using your phone at night, just scrolling on your phone. That is all time that you could be connecting with yourself, listening to your intuition, you know, what's inside of you. I think honestly, AI can be a good tool for journaling. If you haven't journaled before, tell AI, I want to connect with my intuition. Can you ask me some questions? You know, and just try to answer those. But I also think stillness is really powerful. Like you talked about doing breath work. For me, a bath is a great way to find stillness. When I take a bath, I lay in the water with my head in the water, only like my nose and mouth outside of the water. And I use a ton of Epsom salts and I have like one candle and otherwise the room is completely dark. And so I kind of make it like a sensory deprivation thing.

50:35And I like to lay in there for an hour. You know what makes that better? A glass of wine. No, it's hard to drink when you're laying like upside down. Like regardless of what you're drinking. It's physically difficult. My brain went there though. We're sitting there and I was like, oh, that's a great time for a glass of wine. I don't know why my brain went. It's just, I'm so preconditioned even after this long to think that. Well, I mean, I do often take a drink in there with me. I usually do a glass of Geroma on one big ice cube. What is that? It's an adaptogenic spirit that has calming herbs in it. Sometimes I'll just do a glass of herbal tea, something like that. But it's more about doing nothing. We spend so little time actually doing nothing. Like the other thing that I recommend is if that's too much for you, take five minutes, take your watch off, take your phone off, put them in the other room and just lay down. People think meditating is this whole big process. It's just stop doing stuff for five minutes. Like think about a work break. When you take a five minute break at work, what do people do? They go and they look at their phones and they maybe walk around and go to the bathroom or something like that. It's not a break. For me, laying down makes a big difference instead. I don't ever meditate sitting up. I always lay down. That's funny. I always sit with my feet on the ground and my hands on my thighs. I think I do a lot of yoga and at the end of yoga, it's the Shavasana. Do you know what that is? No idea. Never done yoga. Okay. So yoga, if you do a yoga class where you're doing poses at the end, the final pose is called corpse pose or Shavasana, which is where you just lay flat on your back. I could do that one. The yoga instructor will walk you through kind of a guided systematic relaxation, like starting with your head, going down to your feet. So I think that was one of the first things that I learned and it's my favorite. So anytime I exercise,

52:39if I go for a run in the morning afterwards, I lay and do a 10 minute meditation, but I just lay flat on my back. Let my whole body relax as much as possible, which works really well right after exercise. Because your body and mind, you have all the good endorphins and you can lay there and just like whatever. And I think if you want to connect to your intuition, lay flat on your back for five to 10 minutes whenever you have a chance. Without a phone, without interruptions, it's very helpful. I love that. That's a great way to, there's a book that we did a book club with called Michael Easter, uncomfortable, the comfort crisis. And he talks about how we are not comfortable unless we're like comfortable, like get okay with being uncomfortable. The second, if you walk through an airport, you'll notice it's a very uncomfortable place. It's like intentionally very uncomfortable. And the second you get in line, even if you're like on Southwest and you're a 25 or be whatever, they call that you go sit in line. You're only standing there for three minutes before you board the plane. Everybody has their phone out and they're all looking at their phone because just that uncomfortable standing there in silence is so hard for us.

53:56The second, I mean, you look at it, a stoplight, you get to a stoplight and you're like, people just grab it. It is such a natural reaction to grab your phone. You feel uncomfortable. So just putting that down and spending a few, like in silence is crazy. I have great ideas in the shower because I don't have any phone or watch or anything and my brain just wanders. Or when I go hiking, I love to just let my brain wander. So I love that. Lay on your back, 10 minutes, no phone, no watch, breaths, focus on your breath. If you don't know how to meditate, headspace, or there's a bunch of different apps that'll walk you through how to do it. It doesn't have to be this whole big thing. What I do, the thing I've been practicing in 2025, my hardest thing for me to do that I've been practicing is the pause. When you get dysregulated, when something happens that you didn't want to happen or the kids are acting crazy, your wife's mad at you because you came home, you said you were being home in 10 minutes and then something happened at work in a restaurant.

54:56I constantly be like, okay, I'm leaving in 10 minutes and then 30 minutes, I'm still here, and it was one of those things. You get home and it's just frenetic and stopping and going, I'm going to call time out for a second, I need to take two minutes. I'll walk in here to the studio and I will take four deep breaths. This is how long it takes to reset your body. The old Nintendo, you hit reset and it just starts back up. You'll stop. I like to sit down, feet firmly planted on the ground. I don't have to go through a whole thing and you take four deep breaths. In four seconds, hold it, take another breath and then let it out for five or six seconds. You do that four times and it resets your entire endocrine system. Your whole body just completely goes, okay, where was I? Let's get back into it and you can go back into it. It just resets everything. I get so up and down with my Enneagram 7 and my ADHD that it's hard for me to find that balance. I like how you talk about Enneagram 7 like it's a diagnosis of something negative.

56:04Well, it's not me. It's something that I thought I was in Enneagram 8 for a long time. That's what my thing was. The diagnosis was I'm in Enneagram 8, which I wasn't, I guess I was okay with because you're a leader, but that's more of a bully type thing. Then the 7 really is me, the enthusiastic visionary who's constantly coming with ideas all over the places, a little, can be very focused, but is unfocused, has tons of ideas, hates pain, doesn't like to deal with really bad stuff, wants to find the positive and tons of energy. Can you guess what I am? Are you an 8? I'm a 7. You're a 7 too? Congratulations. Don't say like it's a bad thing. No, it's one of the better ones if you can get out of your own 7. Get out of your own 7. Okay. I mean, if you'd let the 7, like Enneagram, sound like anything, it's just an archetype. It's not like what you are. It's what you have tendencies to do. So if you can understand what your tendencies to do are, recognize when you're falling into that pattern and don't let it control you, you can do really anything, but your tendency is to go down that road. Am I right?

57:20Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think that's true for any of these types of things. They're helpful as a self-development tool, however you want to use them. Sharpier's Bakery is a locally owned and family operated wholesale bakery providing bread to Nashville's best eateries. They have operated in Nashville since 1986. Yes, next year will be 40 years. They providing high quality, fresh bread daily for restaurants, catering companies, hospitals, and universities. The bread is also free from any preservatives and artificial flavors. They're right off of White Bridge Road. Erin Mosso and her team have been doing this for a long time. And you know what I love about them is that they're local and they care. They care about your business. That's like the number one thing you're going to hear me talk about is do they care about your business? And I 100% believe that they do. If you would like to be working with the bakery that cares about your business, give them a call. 615-356-0872. That's 615-356-0872. Now you can always visit them at sharpiers.com. That's C-H-A-R-P-I-E-R-S dot com. And they have pictures of all of the bread that they can have for you and contact information. Go check them out Sharpier's Bakery.

58:43Are you one of those people who's always on the hunt for the next restaurant location? You open any sweet deals on retail space that may come your way? Why not be proactive and have the market experts out there working for you? The retail team, Atlee and Associates, led by Miller Chandler and Megan Glazier, is your go-to for all things commercial real estate in Middle Tennessee. They're located downtown in the heart of it all in the Batman building. Miller is a Tennessee native, so you know he knows the neighborhoods and demographics, and Megan is a California transplant who brings fresh perspective as she fully embraces the Music City culture. They use the best prop tech like Placer AI and Esri to analyze the data, while also leveraging their own industry knowledge and relationships to find and negotiate a killer deal for you. If you're one of those people and you'd like to get a hold of them, their office number is 615-751-2340, or better yet you can call them directly to get your conversation started on your next restaurant location. You can reach Miller Chandler at 615-473-2452 or Megan Glazier at 760-846-6193. That is the retail team, Atlee and Associates.

01:00:01Give them a call today. You can also visit them at TheRetailTeam.com. So I've been visiting a lot of restaurants recently and one of the comments I hear a lot is, well we just post online, we do marketing ourselves, and guys you need to speak with a professional and that is where Miles hospitality marketing comes in. She works exclusively with independent restaurants and small hospitality groups, helping you build a smarter, more strategic marketing plan without hiring a full-time team. The best part, owner Christine Miles brings over 25 years of restaurant marketing experience to the table. She's worked with everyone from beloved neighborhood spots to national chains and she knows what works in real world restaurants. So whether you need help branding, digital marketing, social media, or just figuring out what actually is worth your time, Miles hospitality marketing gets it from quick wins to long-term growth. They offer everything from graphic design to full fractional CMO services. Check them out at mileshm.com. That's m-y-l-l-s-h-m.com. Mention Nashville Restaurant Radio and receive a free hour consultation, Miles hospitality marketing, because your marketing should work as hard as you do. How do you use it? I don't really. As a self-development tool. You don't do anything with the Enneagram? You know we took, I took the Enneagram test a couple of years ago and Elisha took it and then we had a lot of conversations about it. What is he? He is a nine, which is like the people pleaser or the peacemaker. Peacemaker. Peacemaker. Sorry. Okay. We have, my wife, we've been doing like a whole therapy thing. Oh. Enneagram based. Okay. She's a six, I'm a seven.

01:01:47And she lives in worry. Six, seven. Six, seven. Look at you. Sorry, I also have a six-year-old. Oh. Yeah, it's a thing. That was the word of the year last year. I wonder what the word of the year that's going to be this year. Killjoy. Killjoy. I like it. Yeah, no, no, it's been really interesting because we find everything in a relationship is about a pattern. We've been married for 20 years, so we get in a pattern all the time and it's like, how do you identify when you're in your pattern and how do you, we have a cool new, you want to know what we do now? Yeah. When we are in the middle of our pattern, we have to recognize that we're doing the things that we normally do. And when I go like this and put my hand up, I'm doing like a backward C or like the half of a heart and she, and then she has to do it too. Connect with you. That's our signal that we're in a pattern and that we're in our brains and that I love you and we need to take a pause, go take some breaths and then we'll come back as I just, my verse is saying, all right, time out. I just go, all right, hey, look, come here. And then she has to get, and she kind of goes, and then, and then we do that.

01:03:01And then we have to hug for 30 seconds. Oh, it's a 30 second hug where we get out of our heads and into our hearts. Our hearts have to feel each other. Like our hearts beating. Wow. And it's a similar thing of just distract yourself from whatever's going on in your head and level set and go, Hey, I love you. I'm not mad at you. Like, let's reframe this conversation. And it just puts a pause in it instead of being in that heightened level of don't say something you're going to regret. Yeah. I like that. That's cool. And we've got that through our Enneagram coaching. Wow. How about that? Yeah. I can set you up with that too, by the way, so much for you. I had no idea. So that's why I'm all like my Enneagram seven, cause this is how I've, we've been doing a lot of Enneagram work around it. I haven't taken the test in a couple of years. So I don't know. I mean, maybe, maybe we've all changed. Deborah Sunderland, Sunderland coaching. She's a business coach. She teaches the 15 commitments of conscious leadership. So how to be conscious every single day, not unconsciously going through the day. We just discussed this. And then she also does, she's a certified Enneagram coach and she has this huge Enneagram test that she does.

01:04:13And she sends you this gigantic evaluation and she will coach you on how to not live in that seven. Did you intentionally change Instagram, Enneagram numbers? No, I took an Enneagram a long time ago and it was like urinate. Yeah. I think I did it when I was drinking. Yeah. Like back then. And I was very cold and very much a kind of a bully. I was a, I was an asshole because I didn't, I couldn't feel empathy. I couldn't feel sadness. I just pushed that shit down. And now I'm like, Oh, I'm way different. And I'm still like, my seven is like, my eight is like, right. And I'm a seven wing eight, but it's very close to being an eight, but I'm definitely. So I took it like a fun, free Enneagram thing, like eight years ago, and it said I'm an eight. So I was like, that's what I am. Never really thought about it. And then she's like, I don't think you're an eight. I think you might be something different. I'm going to give you my test, which is like an official, you know, you got to pay for it and all that stuff. And it was like, Oh, that's not what it is. And it was way more detailed than the free one I got online. And that's where it gave me and told me I was a seven. Okay. Yeah. I did like an official test because I worked with a like career coach seven or eight years ago, but I haven't. So that's when I learned about it. And I haven't done much of it since then.

01:05:27All right, Stephanie, I think that everybody's loving to hear us talk about our Enneagrams. Comment with your Enneagrams. Smash and like, subscribe. You have a podcast too. Yes. Tell me about your podcast. It is called the Killjoy Afterparty. And we've been on hiatus for a hot second. We've done two seasons. And we interview people about their life post alcohol. And then we write a song with them. So we write a song at the end of every single podcast. Um, they're short little songs. It's kind of like we, we weren't totally clear with what we were doing in the beginning, but now we're kind of writing like your walkout song. So it's like a little hype song for you based on the stuff that we talk about during the show. Like, do you have a guitar, like have a guitar in here? Do you like have like a, does John play guitar and he like does a whole thing? No, John's your partner. I mean, I didn't, we didn't talk about John at all. John's a musician. He's been a songwriter for his whole life. So he creates like beats.

01:06:30So he basically has music that's already created and we give people three options. So we'll play after this is off, off camera, but we play like the three different options for you. You pick the one that you like, and then we write some lyrics together. And then John just puts the lyrics and the music together and performs it and that's it. So we do it. It's, it's, it's a creative exercise that's fun, you know, and it's very Nashville to write a song. And so you kind of get as all of our interviewees get their own song at the end of our podcast. Um, so we've had a lot of fun doing that and people have enjoyed it. And it's also like part of our brand and part of my Enneagram seven and all of that is like, this is fun. You know, this is not bleak. Like let's tap into our creative side, our fun side. Um, and that's super important to me in pretty much everything that I do is like, I just, I need it to be fun. And I am really trying to allow creativity in, you know, I think that's another thing that our, our phones tend to block. So like just have fun for, for fun sake. Like you can just create stuff and it doesn't have to be good. Yeah, a hundred percent. I always tell people in the restaurant, I go, Hey guys, this is food. Like this is supposed to be fun. This is hospitality. We get to do fun. This isn't crying the walk in stuff. Like it's okay. Like we're, this is, let's have a good time with this. And if you have a good time with it, your guests have a good time. And then you finish the day and you're like, Hey, that was fun. But also they should feel their emotions, right? A hundred percent in the walk in. No, I guess yes, but not at the, not in front of customers. Well, sometimes the crying in the walk in thing is usually by how you're treated by somebody. Yeah. You forget to ring something in and a chef screams at you or a manager chastises you, shames you in the middle

01:08:32of a shift and it's too much. It's overwhelming. And you go crying the walk in. I don't subscribe to that style of leadership. I subscribe to a more empathetic coaching style of helping people succeed. So hopefully I don't have that. And again, that's why I say, Hey, it's just food. There's no need to go. We don't need to have these negative emotions around this. You forgot the ranch. I'll go to the table. I'll buy him dessert. Like it's okay. Like we'll do something. I don't care about the table. Like just it's fixable. These are not, this isn't like you're doing brain surgery and you drop the scalpel and they're amygdala. And now the person can't think for the rest of their life. Like that's a big deal. It's a big deal. Like you are doing a vasectomy and something bad goes, like these are big deals. This is food ranch. Not, it's not the end of the world. Like have fun. I love that. I totally agree. So thank you for coming in. You write a song at the end of years and I do the Gordon food service final thought. A lot of times people on the show are like, Oh shit, I have to say something now. What I do is you get to take us out. So you get to have the final thought of the episode. Do you know this? Cause you listen to the podcast all the time, all the time. I'm sure of it. Right. Cause you have lots of extra time to listen to my podcast.

01:09:52You get to say whatever you want to say. You get to take us out. And I have a feeling like you're going to just jump into this with lots to say. Well, it's dry January. If you have any part of you that is considering what it would be like to cut back or quit drinking, I encourage you to explore that. That's your intuition talking to you. And there's a huge community of people that are doing the same thing. And it's a really fucking fun, cool community. So you're invited come hang out with us. Let's do some rad shit. Stephanie still so excited to have you here on the podcast today. Thank you. Happy new year. Uh, for those of you who are sober, curious, wanting to, um, explore dry January, you can go to kill joy where you're going to be among friends. There is one, is it on fatherland? It's on fatherland in East Nashville. Really cool. Walkup storefront. And then there's also one in Berry hill. And, uh, you can go to kill. What's your website club.com kill joy club.com. And you can look at on there. They have all kinds of different events that are going on to where you don't doing this alone is really hard. Go to events, meet other people.

01:11:13It's really fun to go do things that where people are typically drinking and you're not drinking. You're just hanging out with other people that are like minded like you. Uh, you can follow her on Instagram. Their Instagram posts are Epic. I love your Instagram posts. Um, and then you follow them at kill joy, underscore Nash, underscore Nash at kill joy, underscore Nash. So lots of ways to get involved in this community. Stephanie, thank you for coming by today. Loved having you here for the first official full interview of you on the show. And, uh, you're welcome back anytime you want to come. You just say the word and you can come back in and we'll, we'll talk more about being sober. All right. I'll call you tomorrow. All right. Bye Steph. Bye. Big thank you to Stephanie still for joining us in studio today. If you're somebody who's in this industry and you want to get clean, sober, whatever that may be, there's a great organization called Ben's friends and Ben's friends is, I don't know the best way to describe it. It's kind of like an AA type thing, but it's for restaurant people. And it's not like a, but it's if you want to try and get sober, but you don't want to go to a room, bunch of people you don't know. You want to be with like-minded people. Ben's friends is for you. They do zoom meetings. There's a meeting here in Nashville. They do, I think it's Thursdays at Oh coup, maybe one o'clock. Um, check them out.

01:12:39Go to Ben's friends. I think it's Ben's friends.org. And, uh, that might be a great community because one of the things, if you're going to do this, you need to have a community. Uh, you can find a great community over at kill joy, but really the community of people that are focusing on their health and recovery, it's different. So we're curious and recovery is a little bit different. We didn't touch on that today, but it is a little bit different and, uh, you need, you need help. And so Ben's friends is there for you. Uh, like I said, uh, we are super excited to be here in 2026. Uh, we are here for you with NARA. Please feel free to go visit us at NaraNashville.com. Register for our event on January the 13th. We'd love to have you there. The whole idea, this is, this is not a bunch of sales reps hanging out. Like this is just restaurant owners. It's just people there hanging out. You get to meet all of the people. We're also giving away our fantasy football awards, which by the way, congratulations to Nick Guidry for winning the Nashville restaurant radio slash NARA fantasy football league this year. Nick Guidry is the owner of Pelican and pig and he beat out Josh from fat bottom brewery. And, uh, it was a heck of, I, I think, uh, Tony was in third and I was in fourth. Tony Galzin came in third and I came in fourth.

01:13:55Uh, I have not looked to see who our last place person is, but I think it's how Holden beige. No, it's not how, who is it? I'm going to look it up right now. Shane Nasby was our last place where he will get the toilet bowl trophy, which will be handing out January 13th. Uh, love to have you guys there. Hey, I hope this year is a wonder one, wonderful one for you. Uh, I will be here throughout the entire year. We're starting a brand new season right now. This is season 10, January 1st, 2026. I hope your guys year is amazing. And I hope that it's always that you guys are being safe out there. Love you guys. Bye.