Shelby Poole, Experiential and Trade Marketing Specialist at Ayrloom – Interview Series

While it seems different on paper, one would be surprised by the number of similarities and transferable skills between working in restaurants, the alcohol industry, and the cannabis industry. Whether it be the importance of positive, respectful customer and vendor relations, or the necessity of clever marketing strategies and campaigns, the similarities are nearly ever-present. An established cannabis professional who’s worked in all three of those distinct yet highly regulated fields is Shelby Poole, Trade Marketing Manager at Ayrloom.

So what subjects did you study while attending Syracuse, and did you ever envision having such an extensive career in alcohol and cannabis while taking those courses?

My career plan in college was to write and direct rom-coms, so I took a lot of creative writing classes, screenwriting, and an unfortunate foray into oceanography which pulled my GPA down. I grew up in the restaurant business and had no intention to come back to hospitality, but I did take one restaurant operations course that reminded me how much I love it. There was no legal cannabis market on the horizon when I was in college, so I stuck with plain old consumption. We had a great bong named “Sal.”

Because it’s a rather uncommon path, what inspired you to go from studying RTVF/communications to being a managing partner in restaurants?  

After college I took a role at a production company that specialized in TV commercials and music videos. It was very chic, and I loved it. However the pace was slower than I was used to in restaurants, and it very quickly drew me back in. To this day, there is no feeling in the world that I crave more than being in the weeds during a Saturday night dinner rush.

What were the most crucial and useful lessons in restaurant management, marketing, and event planning/logistics that you learned while serving as Managing Partner for those restaurants? And what were some specific ways that you saw the restaurant industry in your area change over those years?  

In addition to extreme multitasking, the restaurant business taught me the power of making people feel comfortable and heard. “Service with a smile” is not just a catchphrase. It unlocks the ability to connect with a stranger immediately. The industry changed when Yelp came around and made everyone the most critical of critics. Smiles mattered less, buybacks mattered more, and at a time when profitability was dwindling, it became unsustainable and frankly unenjoyable to be in the space.

What does being on the Board of Directors for the New York State Restaurant Association entail, and how does this organization help and strengthen New York restaurants and their owners?  

I became very involved with the Restaurant Association during the pandemic, surrounded by operators like myself doing everything in our power to keep the doors open. At the time I had begun transitioning to my new career, so I would work my 9-5 job, get on a webinar, maybe go film a reel for Instagram trying to push a family dinner package on roller skates, and also somewhere in there I was making sure my kids were learning and entertained. I was very proud of the many hats I was wearing at that time, and it led me to sitting on the NYSRA board, which is an opportunity I’m endlessly grateful for.

Our mission as an organization is to support restaurant and bar operators in the many facets of what it takes to open and thrive, and to represent the industry with advocacy at local, state and federal levels. The board is instrumental in sourcing creative solutions to constantly mounting issues the industry faces. The sober curious movement has been a devastating blow to the state of the industry, so a huge initiative I’ve been vocal on for years and is taking some lovely shape is how operators can profit on-premise with infused beverages.

What interested you about working for the beer giant that is Anheuser-Busch, and how did you utilize your decades of experience in restaurant management in the roles that you held with Anheuser-Busch? 

I had the good fortune to work within a small microcosm of the Anheuser-Bush world. Blue Point Brewing Company is a legacy Long Island brewery that was acquired by ABI in 2003. I was one of very few craft beer professionals who initially supported the sale, because I figured I’d never have to buy pint glasses again at my bars. Going to work for them was surreal. My small business roots were extremely evident. The first time I made a presentation to our GM I did it on a Word document and she laughed at my lack of Power Point skills.

The learning curve was substantial, but my perspective as being a retailer for many years proved extremely valuable in the planning process. I’m a big believer in applied knowledge, and I brought a ton of that to the table. My work ethic was also excellent since I was running my own show for so many years and had nobody to shift accountability to. My time at AB was particularly spectacular from an educational perspective, because the pandemic led endless virtual learning opportunities. I will forever be grateful for what was essentially a masters degree I earned from one of the greatest marketing companies the world has ever known. I am a better marketer from my time there and it is evident in all the work that has come after.

What were some professional milestones/accomplishments and memorable days in general while being a Brewery Experience Manager? What were the largest events you oversaw the planning of? 

The two biggest legacies I left behind are actually cannabis related. Cannabis was rooted in the core values of the brewery without it ever really being stated, so I pitched celebrating 4/20 as a holiday with a flagship event. The inspiration was shakedowns, these mini flea markets that pop up in the parking lots of Grateful Dead and Phish shoes, that are really sometimes more fun than the actual show. The first year of “Shakedown on Main Street” was during the pandemic and the only money I spent was on a spatula to make grilled cheese sandwiches. We had live music, vendors, people were forced to sit at a picnic table in order to qualify them to get up and walk around, and it was magical. We scaled in year two, where we released a collaboration terpene-infused IPA with SHERBINSKIS. At its peak there were 3,000 attendees, with headlining bands including Lettuce and Shaggy. We were profitable for all years of this event, as were all of our collaborators. From Shakedown, I spun it off into “Toasted Tuesdays,” a weekly 21+ sesh held in our beer garden led by our flagship beer, Toasted Lager. This became an extraordinary revenue driver for the brewery, and still continues to thrive many years later.

What caught your professional attention about working in cannabis after such a long career in restaurant management and alcohol marketing? Did you have any initial concerns or worries about working in an industry that is federally illegal? 

I never had any concerns about working in the cannabis space, and anyone who knows me will tell you it’s where I was headed all along. There was one year that I dressed as Nancy Botwin from the TV show “Weeds” for Halloween and handed out gummy pot leaves in dime bags. I consider every moment of my career pivotal in my success in this space, and I am so grateful for the unique journey I’ve taken.

What were your regular and lesser-known duties of being Marketing Director for Happy Days, and what would you say were the most vital lessons that you learned about working in the very young New York cannabis industry and marketing for this nascent industry in general? 

When we opened Happy Days, the challenge I found the most daunting was how to show gratitude to the customers that were contributing to our meteoric rise. With the regulations prohibiting discounting or loyalty programs, it prevented us from giving back the way we wanted to. We skirted this issue by hosting “Happy Nights,” an offsite gathering for the top 20% of YTD spenders where we had brand education, munchies and an opportunity for our budtenders and customers to kick back together. In addition to building customer loyalty through these events, it also started to solidify these new brands as REAL BRANDS, which is a vital component to preventing price compression.

Another huge challenge, and a great example of the industry infancy at the time, was the simple lack of marketing capabilities by nearly all of the brands coming on line in the market. Launching in NY is not a walk in the park from a bureaucratic or operational standpoint, and I think that many of the brands had exhausted their resources by the time the marketing budget rolled around. I wanted to respect the work and passion that people were putting into their product, which often meant providing boosted support with visual merchandising and media.

Some of the many great lessons I learned at Happy Days are to surround yourself masterful collaborators, treat your email list like the diamond that she is and to put your head down and keep going. We did not open as the number one dispensary in the state. It took very consistent hard work, and I will forever be grateful to the owners for giving me the opportunity to grow with them. The secrets to my success on a marketing front will always be to lean into community and authenticity and to respect the endless subcultures shoppers may find joy in.

What first caught your attention about the Ayrloom brand, and what is the brand doing that you feel stands out in the New York cannabis industry? And do you think the brand’s large catalog of edible cannabis products (beverages, tinctures, balms, etc.) gives it a retail advantage over other brands?

The first time I saw an ayrloom product was at an industry event just as the market was opening up. I lamented to everyone around me that these multi-state brands need to allow room for NY-born brands to exist before they try to take things over, and that we need to be mindful about supporting local. It is so well-executed that I literally thought it was an established brand coming to NY. I think our abundance of SKUs is helpful in the sense that there are very consistent products for every consumer, allowing space for each person to grow and evolve in their own time.

Despite large differences in federal and state legality as well as regulation, what would you say were the most transferable skills/management styles that are useful in both the alcohol and cannabis industries?

If I did nothing else except apply each of my successes in craft beer to cannabis, I would be deemed a genius. We are quick to forget that while cannabis is a new industry, most of this has been done before… a great retail experience is a great retail experience, packaging is packaging, etc. The area that I don’t believe we’ve really even approached the surface of is hospitality, including the on-premise channel and tourism. I absolutely have my head down working in that direction. I would say that if you are looking to make the most of your career in cannabis, the most transferable skills from your former life are the ones that you are confident in your ability to execute well.

What are some exciting future plans that Ayrloom has, and what impactful moments and decisions do you think that the next few years hold for the overall New York cannabis industry?    

My intention in this industry has always been to stay as mainstream-facing as possible. It is very easy to get caught up in the echo chamber of internal-facing campaigns and events, and we as can quickly forget about the simplicity of the shopper’s needs. I believe that 75% of consumers don’t even know they consume yet, so we have a huge job to always be simplifying our messaging to be welcoming to the cannacurious and casual consumer.

At ayrloom we are heavily focused on innovation while maintaining the quality and integrity of our products. From a marketing perspective, we’re always on the lookout for established community partners to help us amplify the endless benefits of the plant and to drive new consumers to shop with our wonderful dispensary partners.

Thank you for joining us, Shelby! For more information on Ayrloom, please visit its website.