Cigar Hustlers Podcast Special Interview Reinhard Pohorec Meerapfel Cigars

Transcript

So, we have a special guest today. We got a special interview that we're going to do. We like to add these in throughout the week when they're available. And we have, I'm going to screw up your name, or at least I always worry about me screwing up your name, because in my brain, I always just want to call you Renard, but it's Reinhardt, right?

Yeah. I just want to, I don't know why, you know, but for me, I was like, Oh, it's Renard, you know, I like American. I don't know. I don't know what I'm doing, but that's definitely my MO.

Um, but Hey, thank you for coming out to the show. Mr. Mirafell is in the house, you know, thanks for having me. You, uh, unsurprisingly, you have outdressed me, which is, uh, which isn't a difficult feat, but, um, just need clothes.

really it's a totally different category over there so always stay true to who you are that's it yeah i think that i'm trying you know i think that there was a period in time for me where i tried to go a different realm i started wearing like these button-ups and this other stuff and i'm after a while is that just at home it didn't happen no no it went when i was traveling on the road and all this other stuff and i'm like the fuck am i doing this is not if it's not you this This is not conducive to, you know, I don't like to think about what I'm wearing. I have six or seven black t-shirts, and once they, yeah, like just like this, and once they start to fade or get a little fuzzy, I, or smell, I throw them all away and I cycle in a new six or seven. So, but anyways, enough about me. Thank you for being on the show, brother.

I'm glad that you're here. Thanks for having me. I want to touch on a couple things. For one, the origin story about you has been covered.

I don't want to get into that, and to be honest, if you guys want to hear more about Reinhardt's story and how he got into the industry and his past and stuff, check out How About That Cigar, episode 225. It's amazing, okay, and it's covered. But I do want to talk about some other things from you personally, right, because I feel like this has been mentioned a lot in your interviews, but it's always kind of been overlooked. So, your grandma, she was with you until she was 103, and she passed this year, correct?

Correct. Now, did she live with you? Next door, in the same building, just across the hallway. Okay.

And she's been in the same building for more than 90 years of her life. You got to pull it in a little bit. Pull the microphone a little closer. There you go.

And yeah, she's been there most of her life, and I was born in that building, and that's That's where I grew up, and that's where I still am. So she was with you for the majority of your life, practically every day? Absolutely, yeah. Okay, so what was that like?

Because I had grandparents, but my grandparents died in an early age, I guess, to some degree, and I never had any of that development, but were there memories for you that are distinct in your brain as far as, who was she to you? You know, my earliest childhood memories evolve around the family table, so standing in the kitchen with my grandparents, kneading dough and baking bread, those are some of the most important memories of my early childhood, and it very much defines who I am and the way I grew up, the things that I'm passionate about, so it had an extremely important imprint on me from my childhood. From a very early age onwards, and, you know, as you said, there's plenty of that covered on other shows and interviews, but I treasure it enormously to this very day that I had my grandparents and my parents around, my mother, thankfully she could stay at home, and my father provided for us working the job that he did, and so even though we didn't have much, we had the family table. And it gave me this profound love and appreciation for the most simplistic, honest things in life, like a good meal, like a piece of bread, and ultimately that's what made me so passionate about the wine and spirits world, and ultimately cigars, because I think this is the most simplistic, honest, and the purest expression.

And the expression of all of that is people dedicating their lives, their blood, sweat, and tears, as they always say in the industry, to craft something like this and sharing your core, who you are, your philosophy, your vision, your dreams with other people through the means of a simple and honest product. And I think that very much comes from the way I was brought up and those early memories that I told you about. Right. Okay, so let me ask you this.

Simple beginnings, humble beginnings, right? But, I mean, if you fast forward now, right, you're smoking a $100 cigar, there's nothing simple and humble about your getup, right? So how did you get from those beginnings to kind of the image that you are now? Oddly enough, there was always something so incredibly appealing about the finer things in life, and when I turned 18, I went to what they call an American bar in Vienna.

Right. Dimly lit, wood panels on the wall, the great Americana playing in the background. And I went there with a suit and tie, had my first ever cigar and my first ever cocktail. And so, don't ask me why, but maybe because I felt like there was a chip on my shoulder, because of my upbringing and my family background, that I always gravitated towards these finer things in life.

Probably that's because they were never really available to us, and it was only through my career and through my professional journey in life that I could explore a lot of these things, and I'm eternally grateful for the wine and spirits world and the hospitality side of things that gave me the opportunity to travel to all these places, whether it's Brazil, Mexico, Scotland, I even went to Russia for the finals of Bacardi Legacy. Places that I never thought I could ever travel to, products that I would have never imagined I could be exploring and tasting in my life. And so, there was always something in me that told me, you know, there's something more to discover, and I gravitated towards that. And it became a natural transition where, professionally, I moved into those industries and into those products that I just felt were mesmerizing and beautiful, and at the same time, I very much think that even in a $1,000 bottle of scotch or cognac and in a $100 cigar, there's something extraordinary.

It's extremely simplistic and honest and humble, even though they have a high price tag coming with it, but it doesn't change the core proposition, it doesn't change the essence of the product, if that makes sense. Of course. And so, I still think that it's extremely true to who I am, but just on a different level, or it found a different alleyway. So, I mean, it's kind of similar to, like, the Ritz-Carlton story.

Have you ever heard of it, right? You know, like, you have a guy who gets in the hospitality business, right? And eventually builds, I mean, I guess, the greatest customer service-based oriented hotel ever, right? Starts from humble beginnings.

So, you know... And, fun fact, I used to be a bartender at the American Bar at the Savoy in London, and Cesar Ritz was the first general manager. No kidding. Or hotel director of the Savoy in London.

And the first executive chef was Auguste Escoffier, who was also considered a legend behind the stove. No kidding. And it was exactly those stories, these legacies, that always piqued my interest. So, still to this day, I don't like the whole notion of luxury.

It means so many different things to different people. And it's never about the price of the product or the experience that comes with it. To a certain degree, that's a natural consequence of everything that's put into it in the first place. But it's the story behind it.

It's the intent with which a product or service has been created and been put forth into the hands of people who appreciate the fine things in life. And so I was much more interested in the story behind it. And what you mentioned about Ritz Carlton, for example, and Cesar Ritz, those are these intricacies and details that I always found inspiring. Okay, so now I got two questions.

Now you got me going in two different directions. So let me double back here, because we started about family, and family kind of developed you into you getting into this line of work where you eventually, you know, you learn hospitality. Um, what's the best piece of advice one of your parents gave you? And I didn't tell you about that one.

I wanted to get your raw response. Was there ever something that your mom or your dad or your grandma said to you that you're like, okay, I'm going to take that and absolutely. " Wow, that's pretty powerful man, especially coming from a mother, right? " When did she say that?

How old do you think you were? It was around the age of 20, and it was a particularly challenging time in my life. I had a severe illness. I pretty much stopped what I was doing before.

I studied socioeconomics, and I was a skiing instructor and worked with handicapped pupils, almost became a professional musician, but I got lost. I always wanted to care of, take care of other people and do good for others, but I always forgot about myself, and that was when she said those words to me, because I felt lost, too many choices, so many different things that I was interested in, and I could see myself working in a million different industries. So, at the end of the day, you know, when you have too much choice, you know, you're just, you're just lost. Yeah, you're kind of spread too thin, you don't really have the direction to go, so you wind up taking no direction at all.

Yeah, and I always focused on the end goal. And so many coaches and so many smart books or podcasts will tell you, like, you have to know where you're going in order to get there. Whereas, what my mother told me was sort of the opposite of, go, start walking, and then you'll figure out. And then you can get the goal.

100%. Right. Okay, so that's perfect, because that actually takes me into the next question. So, what is the goal for Reinhardt?

You know, I'm going to ask you questions about Mirafel later, but what's the goal for you at the end of the day? What do you want to do here? I want to share meaningful and memorable experiences with other people, and I want to share a little bit of what I discovered to be so extremely beautiful and enriching, life-enhancing, in savoring these incredible products and having such memorable experiences, I want to share a little bit of that as an inspiration with other people, for them to see what they're doing. And I think that's the incredible beauty that's around us.

I think especially in today's day and age where everything is so fast paced, digital, online, we oftentimes forget or simply overlook all the richness around us. A great conversation. That's what the cigar is always about for me. It's to take time for yourself.

Take time for a great conversation with another person. Read a book. And that's one thing that I learned, particularly through my sensory journey and focusing on smell and taste and creating experiences that are holistic from a certain extent, from a certain extent that I learned, particularly through my sensory journey and focusing on smell and taste and creating experiences that are holistic from a certain extent. But from a sensory perspective, you suddenly realize there are so many wonderful things to discover that we oftentimes overlook, and that's really at the core of everything that I want to do, is make people aware of the abundance around them and share those experiences.

So by expressing that, taking the time, by expressing, hey, you know, that sensory experience, are all of those things always going, do you see yourself doing those things solely with Mirapfel? Or do you have a bigger goal eventually? Like, what is it? What is it?

Does that exist? Or are you still on the, hey, just continue going forward path? You know, obviously, you have a great relationship with Jeremiah. Obviously, you have a lot of things going well with Mirapfel.

You know, I mean, personally, you know, when your cigar hit number one of the year, I was, I was like, I don't know, right? I'm like, okay, that's kind of out of nowhere. But you know what? I respect Half Wheel all the time.

And when they put a number one up, I know that it's not biased, right? I know that it's not geared toward a particular vision, right? Or someone didn't buy enough ad space, you know, or some of that stuff. That other bullshit that we always see in this industry.

So, of course, I was instantly intrigued to smoke the cigar, and when I smoked the cigar, I was like, son of a bitch, this is an amazing cigar, right? And it was something that was totally different as far as my experience, so I understood why it made number one. But what does it mean for you as far as, do you, can you see yourself being with Mirafel for the next 20 years? - Absolutely.

- Yeah? - Yeah. - Okay, I think that's great, man, you know? - Absolutely.

- So you're very content with where you're at. You think that you, that the, the goals that you have are aligned with Jeremiah and the Mirafel family? Absolutely. And you can kind of...

Otherwise, I wouldn't have started working with him in the first place, you know? Right. I was self-employed for, for 10 years prior to that and it's not an easy step to leave behind your entrepreneurial journey and your own business and to work for somebody or with somebody again and it... Well, you're no longer in charge, right?

Like, you don't... To a certain degree, yes. I mean, I have the privilege to sit next to Jeremiah and together we design our strategies and the path forward. So, I'm very hands-on in pretty much all aspects of the business, which is also why I think this project is so special, because despite the impact that the Maripfel family has had on the industry, It's still such a small family business where we're all hands-on and working together to get to where we want to go and that's also what intrigued me about the Maripfel Cigar in the first place.

It was never a business or a business case to begin with. It was created out of the love and passion for the industry and with the intention of sharing some of the rich family history, And that to me was far more intriguing than anything else, and you know, I don't care about job titles and positions. Right. Nor do I care about the money aspect of it.

It has to align with my core principles and values. And that's the one thing that I immediately recognized with Jeremiah when I sat down with him for the first time, and when we met him for the first time and when we met him, we met him for the first time. We met through Light Him Up in the beginning, and then all the conversations that we had thereafter, something clicked, and I realized, you know, here's a gentleman who's very true to his word, and who's very dedicated to perpetuating his family legacy, and it just made all the difference for me, and that's when I felt this is where I belong. This is the fit.

And it's a fit. Okay, well you kind of answered this, but what is, so what is the goal for Mirapel? Right? What is the goal for the cigar?

Is it solely just to continue forward with the legacy and create that? Yeah. That's it. Like there's no global domination.

There's no, you know. You know, when, when you make 613 boxes of every Vitola per year, there's no global domination with that. I mean, it's, it's such a small niche of a niche of the cigar. 9% of all the other cigars out there, most of which are fantastic nowadays.

I mean, we truly live in a golden era of tobacco and cigars. I think that's partially true, to be honest. And I agree with you, because we both know that, you know, once the numbers kick in, once the monetary aspect and the business aspect of it all gets in the way, It's all too tempting to cut the little corner here and there and try to make up for that with a nice gimmicky marketing story and some flashy packaging and stuff. And that's another thing that I recognized with Jeremiah and the entire Mariful family is when you have a legacy on your fingertips that goes back 400 years and many, many generations, You don't take that lightheartedly, and you don't cut corners, because you don't simply jeopardize 400 years of family history for a little extra buck at the end of the year.

Right. So just to kind of give a backstory briefly about the Meerapfel, go ahead. If I may just add, because I think it's important to your question, that's also very much part of the proposition of Meerapfel Cigar is to do things in a way that not many other people can or would be willing to. Okay.

I think that's fantastic, man. But just to kind of get a little bit more in details of who Mirafils are, because I think that not a lot of people in the industry, not a lot of cigar smokers are aware of who the Mirafils are, right? So you briefly tapped on the fact that they've been in tobacco growing for over 400 years. And trading.

And trading tobacco. And one of their big notoriety things is Cameroon wrapper, right? Absolutely. Especially selling to the Fuente family.

Right. So, what kind of made them determine the price point for where they're at? You know, because this isn't definitely, this is a higher end cigar as far as the price is concerned. Is it because of that legacy?

Is it because of what they want to really kind of... I think it's a natural consequence of the incredible craftsmanship and attention to detail that goes into every single element of the entire Marathon Cigar experience. If you think about a 20 plus year old vintage Cameroon wrapper and the other tobaccos in the blend being 17, 18, 19 years of age as well, you can hardly put a price tag onto that because it doesn't really exist. Hardly anybody else has tobacco of that nature and age at their disposition and then you add on top the ring, which is a piece of art in and by itself and took over four years in development.

The ribbon, hand-dyed in France by one of the oldest families, still working those traditional techniques, and they only supply Hermès, Chanel, the L'Hermitage Hotel in Monaco, the Polonia wooden chests coming from Japan, considered the royal wood of Japan, it's all these little details and intricacies that ultimately make for the experience. And they all have a role to play in telling the story of the family members. Hence, these generational family blends where every single one of them, Richard, Ernst, Meir, and eventually the Heller, they're all named after one of the family generations. So the idea is to give you a taste, give you a sense of who were these gentlemen, and what was their contribution to the world of the family?

And price is... I don't want to say it's a mere afterthought, but it's just a consequence of all these elements of deconstruction. Look at what the Swiss horlogerie, the watchmakers, or the German supercars, or the Haute Couture legacy brands have done so successfully. They all looked at their industry and the product that they were offering and they dismantled it and deconstructed it into the most minuscule components, tweaked every single one of them and took them to a level of the extreme to bring forward and to bring out a level of, perfection is a big word, but craftsmanship, really, and dedication and commitment to their craft that very few other people or brands were either willing or capable to do and that's exactly what jeremiah and the family set forth to do is to take or to bring that level of finesse and elegance to the world of handmade premium cigars all of which is very much reflective of their their history and the way they were brought up and also being an old european family which i think is a very It's a very different way of looking at things compared to the more Latin American part of the industry, which is predominant now.

Okay. And that's very much where premium cigars came from when you think about it. In the Amerifilster were trading Sacred Leaf from New World into Spain as far back as 1610. So a lot of that part of the industry, that core of the premium cigar side of things, came out of Europe.

And then of course it transformed and it morphed over the years, but it's that notion of old European elegance and finesse that the Mirafels truly stand for. Got it. Got it. So, like as we said before, you know, obviously Mirafel is well known for selling tobacco to a lot of the icons in the industry.

Which is also the reason why they were primarily behind the scenes of the industry and not really visible to the end consumer. Right. Because they were trading tobacco with the icons of the industry, as you mentioned, whether that's the Fuente family, or the Leon family, General Cigar, and Lido Gomez. And now Roma, which I'm excited about.

And Roma Craft, absolutely. But that happens mostly behind closed doors, and not very much visible to the end consumer. And Maripfel Cigar is the opportunity for us to put something in front of the most discerning consumers' hands and tell them, you know, this is the Maripfel story and you can explore that and you can taste that through the means of an actual cigar. Right.

So, now, these, I mean, these colleagues, per se, you know, that you've did, that relationships have been developed with for generations, to some degree, now they're your competitors, right? Like, how do you think they feel about you guys kind of coming into that space of creating your own cigar? 9% of the rest of the industry, anyways. And I have experienced that in the industry, the icons are so closely connected to each other and support each other in whichever way we can.

And there's room for everybody in this industry. I mean, the challenge that we all have at our hands is to grow the pie for everybody and not to take a slice of the pie from somebody else. And rising tide raises all ships. True.

And so we still work with all of these other people, and hopefully we'll continue to do so for generations to come. So I don't really think of it that way, and I really don't think that they would either. But of course, you know, it's also an industry where we have a lot of strong characters. Yeah, I mean, I call them egos, yeah, and that's perfectly fine, I think that just makes for the overall beauty of our industry, for sure, for sure, okay, so, man, I just lost my train of thought, because I was like, oh, I got another great question, but, so, okay, so, you live in Austria, you have a fiancé, right?

And you are at the helm of navigating this vision and this dream for Jeremiah and the Mirapel family. How do you do it? Right? I mean, you know, I know that's like a, um, it's like some, Hey, simple, simple answer is you don't.

Right? Yeah. It's like, you know, I just, how do you play baseball? You know what I mean?

Like, you don't, it's like, okay, let me break all that down. Right. Um, yeah. How do you do it?

Because, you know, And eventually, you know, listen, you're young, right? Thank you. You know, like you're mid-30s, 36, I think, right? Spot on.

And like you're engaged, right? Marriage is, you're looking down the barrel of marriage, right? Which is a beautiful thing. Eventually, you're going to start pulling the goalie here and hopefully you're going to have some kids, right?

If that's the plan. I would assume that's the plan, but, you know. And now you have this landscape of this market that you're not originating from, right, and you have to figure out a way how to navigate through all that. How do you do it?

Again, I think the simple answer first is: you don't, and you get up every morning, do your best, and try to service all of our individual partners to the very best of my abilities, and we have a very small group of partners, so we only work with about 30 shops in the United States, and about a hundred partners globally. And my ambition is to service every single one of them as best as I can in the most personal and loving and caring way. And obviously, my day only has 24 hours like everybody else's day. So, of course, there might be shortcomings every now and then, but we're just human in that.

Big part of the equation, though, is to very carefully hand select our partners in the first place. And make sure that our visions are aligned and that we're trying to to get to the to the same end goal or trying to get there together. Right. So you mentioned the fact that I'm not from the US originally and I've spent a good amount of time here in the country traveling to various different states from from east to west.

And it's beautiful and it's incredibly enriching to see the variety and the diversity in terms of cultures and people. People and just the different layouts of shops and lounges and how people operate and that's beautiful because that makes us who we are and it makes for the diversity in our industry. I always say variety is the spice of life. So, even though that's the case, I still think at the end of the day, we have a common goal and we try to create an experience for the people who walk through the door and who walk through the door and who walk through the door and who walk through the door.

They want to enjoy a great moment for themselves or with other people, at the lounge, at the shop. And when we manage to bring together our visions, our ideas and philosophies, and out of that wave one clear and cohesive story, that's all we can strive for and that's all I could wish for. So I think it very much boils down to understanding the individual position and challenges that our partners are facing, supporting them to the best of my abilities, and be there for them, and that doesn't have to mean that, you know, I come knocking at your door every single day, I think there's other ways of being present and showing our partners that we care, and providing them with all the tools necessary for them to be successful with the product. And again, success in this case to me doesn't mean numbers, or selling a shit ton of boxes, it's sharing that story, and making sure that the people who enjoy one of these cigars get a bit of an idea of what's behind it, because otherwise this is a wasted product, it's a waste of the tobacco and the cigar, if people just light it up and smoke it because it's expensive or it looks fleshy and gimmicky, I'd rather not have people do that.

But if we manage to make them not even understand, but just sit back and think for a moment of what they have in their hand and what it took over centuries and generations to get to this point, we have a winner. Okay. So I think what you're telling me is a couple things. Number one is, you're not geared, the product in itself is not geared towards the high-end consumer, it's actually a little bit more niche, right, it's, 'cause a lot of high-end consumers, they'll just smoke a $100 cigar just because, ha, ha, ha, right, I am smoking the 100, you know, or like the Davidoff Oro that's $750 or whatever, they don't know shit about the cigars, not all of them, right, but there are some of them that don't know shit about the cigars, but they just wanna say, hey, I'm smoking the $750 cigar, right?

you're actually gearing your market base towards a higher end consumer people who care that are educated right like they're or want to be educated right there's a don't know we don't all have to be there right it's a journey yeah there's a guy that says hey i own a ferrari because i own a ferrari right it's fast and then there's a guy that says hey i own a ferrari because of the compression uh x is this the the transmission is this the suspension and all of these things are It's superior to an automobile, and that's why I have the Ferrari. You brought up a wonderful point, and Jeremiah makes a similar analogy when he talks about a Pagani. It's a car. Right.

It'll get you from A to B. Right. And probably not in a more comfortable way than a Volkswagen or a BMW would. Right.

But for the few people who care about all these crazy details and about the visionary behind it, Who spend so much time and energy and money on crafting something that's out of the ordinary and provides you with a stunning experience. That's the key. Right. And that's what we want to focus on.

And it takes a very stubborn personality to do that. And it takes a very dedicated person to do that. And I firmly believe that those who know, know, and those who care, care, and it might take an extra day or an extra year or an extra decade to reach those people or to share those intricacies and make people aware and make people care, but we're in for the long run anyways. Right, I mean, you're already in at 400 years, I mean, what's another 30?

And so, as you said, yeah, it's a very particular niche and type of, I dare say customer, but somebody who actually cares. Right, just the consumer, right. Okay, real quick, just wanted to add, there was one thing that you said that I thought was fantastic, and I don't like to really, you know, repeat things that you say on podcasts, but it was something about cigars, and what's important to you about, How you kind of reflect on it at the end of the day, can you go ahead and elaborate on that real quick for us? The three things that you were talking about.

How do you end your day? What's the best way to end your day? So, it's actually something that's not really focused on cigars, primarily, but it's something that I used to share with people when I was giving lectures or seminars, and it has to do with awareness and appreciation in general, I think. And the whole concept is to, at the end of your day, sit back and reflect on three things that struck you as memorable or positive during that day.

And it's a simple exercise of trying to capture these moments, your emotions in that particular moment, and to memorize three little elements during the day. And no matter how simple or meaningful they might have been, but to think back, capture those little moments, and carry that sense of positivity in your heart and go to bed with that. And what you realize is that after a couple of days, you start to actively look for those golden nuggets throughout the day. And it changes your way of thinking and it changes your perception and your awareness for those kind of things because you already think, well, you know, tonight I have to think about these three memories or these three little moments, these golden nuggets.

Right. So you become way more attentive during the day and appreciative of these moments. I think that's fantastic, man. I'm just glad that you brought that up.

I'm glad that we, uh, we got that on so I can clip it. For sure. So. Do you have anything else you want to add?

You know, a lot of people will say that I'm stubborn, and I'm naive, and a die-hard, positive person, and I am, because I'd much rather have it that way. I'd much rather be stubborn and positive than stubborn and negative, you know? A hundred percent, absolutely. Of course, without question.

Mr. Mike, do you have anything to add? No. Nothing from the Bored Monkey today?

Nothing from the Bored Monkey, yes, thank you. Okay. Okay. All right.

I was waiting for that curveball, probably. Yeah. No, it was a very serious interview. I mean, it was a very good interview.

Yeah. But there wasn't a lighthearted spot to throw in a zinger or something. It just, it wasn't that kind of interview at all. It didn't fit that.

No, I had some things, but I was like, no, that's not appropriate. So, uh, you know, one other thing, if you were talking about 30 retailers and you were talking about them having a particular vision and it being aligned with the Merrill family, if you were to find out that If one of those particular retailers didn't have the same vision that you had, what would the organization do? Would you continue forward? You'd change it.

Yeah? Absolutely, we'd change it. You have to be very protective and careful with such a delicate and fragile and valuable proposition. Right.

And same as when you craft the product, same as when you blend the cigars, you select the tobaccos, you age the tobaccos, you roll the cigars, There's no shortcuts, and there's no cutting corners. And if we were to experience that with one of our partners, I think first a very serious conversation is due, but then if we were to realize that our visions and our goals are not aligned, then we'll simply stop supplying them with product. Because otherwise you just put the entire project and the entire idea at jeopardy and we won't do that. Right.

Okay. Where are you? Are you going to be at a particular event this week? Do you want to plug it at all?

Because this thing will come out probably in the middle of the week. So I have two more stops and events to do before the end of this week. One is in Greenwich, Connecticut with Mike Cafangno, who's a great partner and a great supporter of ours. You got the whole Jeremiah speech.

I saw that on social media. What's the name of the shop? It's the Tobacconist of Greenwich. In Greenwich, Connecticut.

And what's the date? I want to say it's the 6th of November. And then on the 7th, I'll be with Capital Cigar in Bethesda with Payam and his crew. And George Brightman will be with me.

George has become a good guy. He's a friend and a mentor. And he'll join me. Can you talk to him a little bit about cameras and some other things?

Cameras? Yeah, because when you do a post, when you do a video, I see an interview with you. There's a painting in the background, right? The image is perfect.

You know, you represent this thing, right? That is, you're compelled to watch. You know, if I'm not even a cigar consumer and I look at that and you're doing an interview, I'm like, I want to hear what he has to say. I'm not sure what he has to say.

He's got his shit together, right? Like, the image looks good, right? George, he's out front of his house, off of his phone, that he hasn't even bothered to clean, and like the image, the content is there, right? There's decades and decades of, it's crazy, of knowledge, right?

I just feel like it's discounted. You're going to say, hey, listen, man, like, look, let's talk about this. Can we get just a little bit of a setup for you? But, Mikey, here's the point.

I mean, look at this. This is incredible. And this should be a role model for a lot of people in the industry as to how you put together a podcast, a live show, no matter what it is. Right.

Not a lot of people do that. For sure. When you look at social media, content creation, even marketing materials in the cigar industry in general, a lot of that is sort of done on the fly or sort of half-assed. Right.

And I don't know if that's because they don't care enough or because they don't have the means to do it any differently, but I think the industry has a long ways to go when it comes to professionalizing. Right. Their communication and marketing and social media and all of that. Yeah.

And also with Cigar Media, I think for a lot of people, it's a very passionate thing, but it's sort of a side hustle thing. Yeah. Where you do it on the fly and you don't care too much about the setup and the technicalities of it, the microphone and the camera and the lighting. Yeah.

And I get all of that. And ultimately, we would agree that it's the content. It's the words that are shared during such a session that matter. But I'm exactly like you, it's everything around that you have to captivate, 100%.

You know what I mean? You got two seconds to grab somebody, and if they come across it, and, you know, we gotta fix that, we gotta fix it. Very true. All right, well, dude, I know that we're gonna get upstairs here, we're gonna do a meeting, we're gonna talk to our employees about the Mirafel Cigars, I really appreciate you coming out here, and it shows to me what type of image it is that the Merifel family is looking for, because I think that as a store, we're not a big store, we don't sell a ton of product, but we are very passionate about what we do, we're very honest about what we do, and we do have a particular image that we strive for.

So I really appreciate you acknowledging that, and thank you very much. You do that exceptionally well, I have to say, and I really, really appreciate it, I appreciate everything that you do for the industry on many different levels, whether that's with your own brand, with the store, your online presence, I applaud you for that, and it's a privilege for me to be here and spend time with you, share a bit of our story with you and with your employees, so yeah, I couldn't be happier than to be here. Perfect. Thanks so much.

All right, thanks. Sous-titrage Société Radio-Canada

Show Notes

Special Interview with Vice President of Meerapfel Cigars Reinhard Pohorec