Episode 71 Mr. William Coop "Cigar Coop"
Episode Summary
Episode 71 of A Cigar Hustler's Podcast brings William Cooper — better known as Cigar Coop — into the Cigar Hustler lounge in Deltona, Florida, while he's in town for the Drew Estate Barn Smoker and a family vacation. Cooper walks the Mikes through how he got into the cigar business in 2010 (starting with business development work for a retailer and buying at IPCPR), how Cigar Coop grew into a site that has published daily since July 3, 2012, and why that daily streak may finally be coming to an end. He also covers his Prime Time and Prime Time Special Edition podcasts, his years with Stogie Geeks, and the technical/cost reasons he's migrating from Google Hangouts to Zoom for Facebook-friendly live streaming.
A big chunk of the conversation is an honest look inside cigar media. Cooper explains how he competes with Halfwheel's larger team by building relationships rather than working the phones "TMZ-style," and vents about news embargoes that hand stories to Cigar Aficionado first and block smaller outlets for up to two weeks. He addresses sponsor bias head-on — including bumping a sponsor's limited-edition Salomón from his year-end list and breaking hard news about Cornelius & Anthony — plus the ethics of review samples, "trick-or-treat bag" bloggers at IPCPR, and why a missing sample shouldn't stop a legitimate review.
Cooper also shares a sobering personal story: after a run-down trip to England and falling asleep in Hector Espinosa's office at Lizard Palooza, he was hospitalized with a blood infection that usually leads to heart infection, requiring a 30-day antibiotic regimen and 45 days without a cigar. On the cigar side, he names the AVO Limited Edition 2010 as his all-time favorite, praises the Powstanie SBC (barber pole) he's smoking, and says he gravitates to Aroa (ArtÃstide/Aroa-style old-school blends), old Camacho, CLE, Davidoff and La Zona/Espinosa. He closes with the show's five signature questions — Tip O'Neill and Ronald Reagan as dream smoking companions, Hannibal Smith and Fred Flintstone as fictional picks, favorite retailers (The Cigar Shop and Tailored Smoke in North Carolina, Casa de Montecristo in Chicago), and the "don't be a Sonny, be a Michael" Godfather advice — along with what he's watching for at IPCPR, including E.P. Carrillo's 10th anniversary and a Cameroon from Roma Craft.
In This Episode
- 01How Cigar Coop StartedCooper explains entering the industry in 2010 via retail business development and IPCPR buying before launching Cigar Coop as a rumor-free news and review site.
- 02Daily Publishing Since 2012Why Cigar Coop has posted every single day since July 3, 2012 — and why that streak may soon end.
- 03Prime Time Podcasts and the Move to ZoomFrom the expensive Stogie Geeks studio setup to Google Hangouts and now Zoom for cheaper, crew-free live streaming to Facebook.
- 04Cigar Media, Halfwheel and EmbargoesRelationship-driven reporting versus Halfwheel's bigger team, and frustration with two-week embargoes that favor Cigar Aficionado.
- 05Sponsors, Bias and Year-End ListsCooper on keeping sponsors off the favorites list, breaking tough Cornelius & Anthony news, and the ethics of free review samples.
- 06The Blood Infection That Nearly Killed HimFalling asleep in Hector Espinosa's office at Lizard Palooza, a hospital stay, a 30-day antibiotic regimen and 45 days without cigars.
- 07Favorite Cigars, Brands and LoungesAVO Limited Edition 2010 as his all-time favorite, plus Powstanie, Davidoff, old Camacho/CLE, La Zona and favorite shops and lounges.
- 08The Five Questions and IPCPR PreviewTip O'Neill, Fred Flintstone and Godfather advice, then what he's excited to see at the trade show from E.P. Carrillo and Roma Craft.
Brands & Cigars Discussed
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Transcript
Welcome to a Cigar Hustlers Podcast Episode 71, this week Mike and I sit down and talk to Mr. William Cooper, the cigar coop himself. So sit back, get ready, light the cigar, here comes the show. all right welcome to episode 71 of a cigar hustlers podcast just ad lib from it hi hi mike Hey, look over there.
Hi, Mike. No, hi, I'm Mike. You're supposed to say your name. Hi, I'm Mike.
Hi, I'm Mike. And my co-host. Just go, introduce the guest. Mike too.
Just introduce the guest. We have a, oh, I snorted a little. We have a very, a special guest. The one and only.
The legendary. Cigar Coop is in the house. Ooh. Hey guys.
Thank you guys for having me on here. This is an honor here. Oh, please. Thanks for coming on, man.
Yeah. This might be our biggest guest. Yeah. No, Jack was on.
Well, not physically. Right, right, yeah. So what brings you to Florida, bro? I was down here for the Drew Estate Barn Smoker, but I combined it with a little bit of a family vacation, and it turns out that we rented a house literally two minutes away from here.
That's it? Yeah, so when I Googled cigar shops, Cigar Hustle came up, and I was, for some reason I thought you guys were out by Daytona Beach. Right. So, but it was Deltona.
It was Deltona. Right, so I'm like, wow, so this is great. And then Mike pings me, he says, hey, you in town? I said, yeah, but I had to go out to Orlando for the Barnes book, I'll be back after the weekend.
Yeah, I saw you and checked into DeBerry. Yeah. I came to DeBerry, I went to Orlando, I stayed out in Orlando with my partner Bear, and then I came back here for the family part. Very cool.
Yep. So you do like, just to kind of give you a shameless plug, I'm sure that everybody who listens to our podcast or anything has heard of you, but you have a couple of different things going on as far as in the cigars. The cigar industry, right? Yeah.
Go ahead. So, obviously, there's the written piece, Cigar Coupe, that was started in 2010. Right. That's the news and reviews.
It's daily. It's been daily every day since July 3rd, 2012. Which is insane. Which is probably going to come to an end, too.
I'll be honest with you. That will probably come to an end very soon, because it is getting tougher. And I think we've proved what we wanted to do, which is we're going to be around. And then, in 2017, I started my own series of podcasts called Primetime.
So there's Primetime, which is a weekly Thursday show, and Primetime Special Edition, which is like a news magazine-y type of show, which is select Tuesdays. Right. Okay. The last video that I think I watched of yours was when Skip went on, right?
The January "Cigar of the Year" one. Yeah, when that motherfucker brought props. Oh my goodness. He raided us.
He raided us. He came in to rate us with that. Which is pretty fantastic. And he had me higher, I didn't expect, he had me rated to two, I figured I was going to be three or four, so I was like, okay, I was a little higher than I want.
You know, what's funny is, Saka did, I think just today he did a question of, you know, what do you guys think of cigar reviews, sites, and stuff like that, and which one's your favorite, and dude, Coop's been mentioned a fuck ton of times. I heard a couple people say you're getting some love on, and I was honored to say that, so that was really nice, yeah, that's very kind of people, anytime they take the time to do that. How long have you been in the industry? Uh, 2010.
Okay, so... I came in around 2010, yeah, with Coop. What the fuck made you get into the industry? Um, you know, I was smoking cigars, and like anything, when I get into something I like, I just dive right into it.
Um, originally, I was doing some work for a retailer on a business development end, helping him, like, build out the humidor, and I ended up going to IPCPR to do his buying for him. Right. One thing led to another, and eventually I started writing about the cigar stuff, and that's how Cigar Coop was born. Okay.
So it kind of happened as something afterwards. I really didn't continue the business development work. I have a day job on top of that. So the media piece, I was amazed how it took off.
And I thought at the time there was a need to kind of change up media a bit, get it a little more accurate, get it a little more reliable. I think there was a lot of misinformation out there. So that's kind of where the whole rumor-free, teaser-free thing started. So then you just, I don't know if we talked about this on the on area, but you're recently gravitating to a thing called Zoom, which I did see you play with on Facebook.
Yes. So that's like an interface, or how's that work? It's like live? Sure.
So what it is is, let me, I'll take a step back. Okay. Before I started the primetime shows, I was with another podcast called Stogie Geeks, and we had a very elaborate setup with that. Right.
We had a studio, we had a production crew. It was great, but it was expensive to run it. I mean, not state-of-the-art, like this establishment. I mean, this is not bad.
I know, I'm sweating like crazy. How many years is it just me? No, you're just dying out. No, but it was a great setup, but part of the reason why I left is it was just too expensive to run that, right?
So when I formed my own podcast, I basically said, all right, I've got to find a way to bring the cost down on this thing. And I've got to find a way where I don't need to have a production crew. And so we started using a Google Hangouts platform for it. It works.
We got it done. There's a little bit of reliability issues, and it's very limited in terms of getting over to the Facebook platform, which is what everyone wants. So Zoom is this new streaming service that provided a platform where, one, I could bring that over to Facebook, do it at a lower cost, and do it where I don't need to have a whole technical crew with it. So we're literally in the process of that transition right now.
There's a few kinks we're ironing out, but I think by June we should be totally over on Zoom right now. Okay. I recommend it. I do recommend it.
Cool. Yeah. Yeah, we're going to pick your brain on something. Sure.
No, I'm happy to do it. Yeah. Or if you're looking for a new sidekick, you know, I'm always looking to move up. Yeah, you can take him.
I mean, if you pay him a dollar, you'd be paying him... More than I made Aaron. A dollar more than what he did. I know.
I just came with Aaron and Bear. Yeah, they're my two sidekicks, and they don't make anything either, so... Evidently, sidekick's a bad position to be in the industry. Hey, don't worry.
Don't worry, I don't make shit either, so congratulations. Right, right. So this can't be your only source of income, right? No, I have a day job.
We just went through that nobody makes any hands. I do have a day job. Let's segue into that. Since you don't fucking make any money.
Since you don't make any money. In cigars. Yeah, I sell technology products for a large software company. Yeah.
And I've been with this company for a year. I've been working with this company for a year. I was with another company that had three very popular letters that I'm no longer with. Right.
Okay. But yeah, that is my day job. It's nothing to do with cigars. Nothing.
No, but they all know I smoke cigars. Right. Actually, it was funny, when I applied for this job, I had on my resume some of my radio experience, and I didn't hide it, so it was out in the open. It's on my LinkedIn page, so there's no surprises.
Everyone knows what I do. No shit. Yeah. And you almost died recently, too.
Me too. Yeah. What? Yeah.
You know, when you get to—I turn 50. Uh-huh. And things change when you're 50. You're not like when you're 20.
Trust me, I'm sweating here. I'm 51. I'm dying. I'm 51 now, too.
Crap, I don't know what's going on. You know, so what happened is— Last night I had the chills and the aches. I thought I was dying last night. I took that new job, and I have some responsibilities in Europe, and I got to go over to Europe.
I went over to England, and I was feeling really run down, right? I came back home, and I said, well, maybe I just need the rest. Right. All right, I'm 50.
I can't kick around England. But I was scheduled to take a few days off to go down to the Lozona Palooza event. I go down to Lozona Palooza, right, and I'm wiped out. And I'm in Hector's office.
I sit in his chair, and I fall asleep. Literally in his chair, like talking to Hector. So the pictures start going. They all make fun of me, right?
Before they realize that you're actually dying. Right, right. So, all right, maybe I'm poised. So maybe I pushed it, right?
I go back home, and then like a week or two later, I develop a fever, so I start to take some Tylenol and knock the fever out, it's not knocking it out. It's not going away. " I go to ER room, they run every test but one, which is the blood culture, the blood culture, they ran it, but I wouldn't have that result that day. " The blood culture comes back positive, indicating a blood infection.
Oh, shit. Wow. So, um, they say, "Hey, Mr. " No shit.
Yeah. So, um, I check in the hospital, and the next thing I find out is that the bacteria that I have almost always leads to a heart infection. Oh, shit. So now they have to check my heart.
" However, this almost always leads to a heart infection, so we're going to treat this like you have the heart infection, which is a 30-day regimen of antibiotics, which are, like, brutal. So that knocked me down for about 30 days after that. No shit. Yeah.
So they said I was very lucky, because if that blood condition continues, it leads to something called septic shock, and that's like your body starts to shut down after that. So, like I said, if your body's giving you signs you're sick, don't take any chances. So they know how you got it? Did you pick up something in England or Europe where we were?
They think what happened is you have a good and bad bacteria in your body. Some of the good bacteria mutated the bad bacteria. In most cases, your body fights it off. Something caused it not to in this case.
It could have been a harder schedule. It happened in Hector's office. It happened in Hector's office. In Lizzo.
Yeah. I'm dying. He's making fun of me in Hector's office, right? He probably injected you or something.
So I've taken a much more controlled pace these days. This will be great news on his podcast. If we try to kill him here in the office. And I didn't smoke for about 45 days on top of that.
No shit. So the industry took a shot, too. Well, it's funny, I'm doing like cigar coupe stuff in the hospital room, actually, right? Right.
And they're like, you know, you can't go out and smoke. I'm like, I really don't want to smoke. I'm like, I'm not feeling good. This is kind of therapeutic, what I was doing.
Right, like a 45 day leave. So you almost died. Jamel's died. You guys are stuck with me now, at least for now.
Hey, that's good, you know, how the fuck do you get all your info? Because like, I mean, it's either you or Half-Wheel as far as, you know, like... " Yeah, I mean, and look, they have a much larger team, they're very good at what they do. So, they use a little more what I would say is like a TMZ, and that's not a derogatory thing I'm saying, they use a TMZ thing where they will work the phones 24 to 7, they have four guys who can certainly do that, and they'll get information, that's how TMZ built what they do, I don't have the resources, I have a day job, I can't certainly do that, so I rely on relationships, and I try to build strategically the relationships and hope that I can get the information that way.
So they call you, type of thing. They call me, but the idea is when you build the relationship, and I can't get, it's like, it's amazing, because it's small, and you can't, I tell people at the show, the show's a pain in the neck, because last year was the first time I had two people at the show doing this. So it grew much bigger than I can ever anticipate. Right.
I mean, the ground that you have to cover on IPCPR is nearly impossible. " So that doesn't bother me as much as when the story's given out to a big print publication, and then we're given what's called an embargo, where we're blocked from it for sometimes up to two weeks. If you try to call up the company, we can't talk about it yet. We made some deals.
And that's the stuff that's really hurting us right now. So, like, there's shit that you can't talk about? There's stuff, like if it's in Aficionado, and we have two choices: we can print what Aficionado wrote, but we can't use the photos, or we can wait two weeks. Why the fuck would anybody do that?
They have a big hole on it. That's some kind of deal they have with Aficionado. And I should say, this is what I've been told from certain companies, we have to wait two weeks. All the companies have been flexible.
If they give me a 24-hour window, I'm okay with that. You know because again, we're a smaller operation, and I find that again, people with the news, there are a few people may be sitting there with a refresh key, but there aren't as many. But I mean, media is media. Media is media, yeah.
The only other publication I've seen that has that type of power is People Magazine, with entertainment stories. They're the same way. Right. With cigars, Aficionado is the, you know, the big guy.
Look, they do a good product, but they can't print every day like a half wheel on myself, so they're feeling pressure right now. Oh, I'm sure they are. And they're leveraging their strength right now. Right.
I mean, that's usually what happens. When you become too big, you can't move as fast as the little guys. Yeah. You can't put pressure on the smaller.
I mean, it happens in retail. Yeah. Well, look, a snob comes out every two months. The time their stuff comes out, it's old news.
Right. And they're going to rely on more feature, human interest, those types of things. Right. Aficionado, even when they get a story, like they have a website, they'll sometimes sit on it for a week.
They'll sometimes sit on it for a week or two. Wow. Alright, so now I have two random off-the-wall fucking questions. Uh-huh.
Who would win in a knife fight, you or Charlie Minato? Oh, Charlie Minato. Fuck no. No, I don't think so.
I don't think so. You're older, with much more experience. I feel like you're surrendering on that one because you knew there's a mic in front of you, but I feel like you could take him. I don't know about that.
I didn't win many fights as a kid. I think who would be the dirty fighter? Throw sand in his face and then stab him. Charlie's still tying his hair up and, you know, he gets stabbed.
We love Charlie, so I feel like I have a right to patch as far as breaking his balls. Look, what he's done is amazing. I mean, yeah, he really has. Dude, I mean, the guy's on top of his shit, right?
" Well, today you should do just something, just something random. Well, that's the part, like, there are some companies that will spill the beans, like, right away, and I'm like, why did you put that out there? Like, well, we waited for someone to call, so I'm like, yeah, but again, we're not sitting here all day, you know? Right.
So, like, the HR story yesterday, I think you broke it first. You did two. I broke it first, but I think we all got the press release at the same time, so I don't think it was... So that was a press release thing?
That was a press release thing, yeah. I had no idea that one was coming with Tobias. I was detached. I didn't see anything yesterday.
Spence hired two people. Oh yeah, I saw that. Yeah, the guy from Cornelius and Anthony, and then the lady to be the social media person. You saw it everyone on his Facebook page?
Yeah. You can afford people? I saw that. Like, we can't fucking afford people.
I know, exactly. It's not like a jab to him, like, what the fuck? You have all the employees of their force to make posts now. Yeah.
We're training them, Michael. Oh, yes. Did you make Coop an admin for the page too? And my other kind of off-the-wall question is: what is like the one thing that you are totally afraid of?
Like what's your biggest fear? Besides dying, I guess. Besides almost dying, a couple of things. Right, the fear I have is basically the ability to not be able to still provide for my family.
Right. Yeah, you know, certainly I went through, you know, a job change. I wish cigars could support the level I have, but, you know, they don't, so, you know, it's, my sales job, it's still a rough market out there, is what I'll say, so we have a lot of pressure with that, yeah. How many kids, yeah?
I have four. Four? Yeah, they're all 18 and over. Do you not have electricity at your house?
Well, the youngest is 18, so. So, I mean, you're over the hump. I'm over the hump, which is good, yeah, yeah. But, obviously, I want to leave something behind for them, which is good.
I was hoping you'd say, like, clowns or some shit, because I really wanted to get, like, a clown at ICPR. Oh, afraid of a clown? I am afraid of clowns, you know, they freak me out, the clown. Okay, good.
There used to be this pizza place I grew up in Staten Island called Pizza Clown, and it was creepy. You'd go in it, it was like, I don't want the pizza from that place. And then they changed it into Pizza Town, and it still had the creepy feeling of the clown afterwards. My shit.
Yeah, yeah. Cooking it back, spending the pizza, melted wax makeup coming out of his face. Here's your pizza. Here's your pizza.
Now, I know you do talk about Lozona a lot, and you obviously like Espinosa, their brands. He almost died there. Is that where you want to die eventually? Hector did try and kill you.
He did try to kill me, yeah. Oh, he didn't care if I died, actually. It's a little different. What do you think your favorite cigar brand is?
Yeah, that's always the question I get. Is it really? Yeah, because, you know, I do smoke a lot across the board right now. See the one in your hand.
You're like a fucking encyclopedia. That Powstanie, that Powstanie SPC-18 was fantastic, I smoked, yes, yeah, that was as good a barber pole as I've ever had, I appreciate that, I mean, I feel like I'm working with the right guys, but I mean, aside from that shit, you know what I mean? I really gravitate a lot to the Aroa stuff, yeah, I mean, I've always, the old Camacho stuff now, the CLE and the Jerry stuff, I've just always liked that. You're old school, man.
I'm old school, yeah. I smoke a lot of Davidoff, I smoke a lot of Davidoff, I smoke a lot of I smoke, obviously a lot of Lozona, but I do try to spread the love, so to speak. Right. You know, one thing is, you make friends in this industry, but you don't want to be too much of a fanboy either.
Right. So, you always have to keep that balance there. You don't want to get stuck. Yeah, but I mean, the Auroa stuff I've probably smoked since the very beginning, you know, going back 14, 15 years ago.
Okay. Yeah. You want to ask the questions? How far along are we?
Uh, 18. That's pretty good. All right. We make it easy.
I mean, the poor guys in town are like on vacation. This is, I said, I'm here as long as you guys need me. You're going to make a six hour fucking coupe? Yeah, I'll say, you guys have to, we could go four hours if you want.
We'll just sit back and watch TV, and we'll just videotape us all watching TV. Okay, we have five questions we ask everybody that sits down with us. Absolutely. All right, you're familiar with the questions?
I've heard them, yeah. Oh, okay. I've got to remember, I'm trying to process what they have, but I haven't heard of me. Okay, what one person, living or dead, would you like to share a cigar with?
Definitely, I would have loved to have a cigar with Tip O'Neill. Really? Yeah. What made you pick him?
Because he was the guy who always, supposedly him and Reagan always sat down over a cigar to get something done. Oh, really? Wow. Yeah.
And Reagan, both of them at the same time. But yeah, I would say Tip O'Neill would be the guy. Huh. Okay.
That's a guy we haven't heard of that one. I'd kind of like to do that. I'd sit down with Ronald Reagan and Tip O'Neill. The honorary, I guess, honorable mention George Pappard.
Who the hell is that? Oh, 18. Guy from the 18. Guy from the 18.
He always had a cigar. The Colonel? Yeah, but in real life, he always, yeah. Yeah.
That was his name, right? Call him the Colonel. Hannibal. Hannibal.
Hannibal. Hannibal. Hannibal. Hannibal.
But even like, outside of the show, he smoked cigars all the time. He had a private label done for him. Oh, shit. Yeah.
And I guess he died. Yeah. Yeah, unfortunately. I'm a little disconnected from the 18.
Ray was like Tip O'Neil. I was like two. I was like 16 when he came out. That's one of my favorite shows.
Yeah, yeah. Mr. T. I hum the theme song in the car when I'm driving fast.
Dun-da-dun-dun. Dun-da-dun-dun. Dun-da-dun-dun. You know, that doesn't surprise me with you.
Hey, you're not sweating now. No, the sweat stopped, I know. That's good for him. My stroke went away.
You probably have a bacterial infection. Maybe. I probably got it from Coops as he said that. A little his genetic-deformed good stuff.
All right, what's your, well, we did favorite cigar, well, what is your favorite cigar? We did brand, but what is your absolute favorite cigar? My absolute favorite cigar I've smoked is definitely the AVO Limited Edition 2010. No shit.
Yeah, that cigar, I bought more of that cigar, I bought every, every time there was a box available, I bought it. Can you still find them? Very, very hard. Yeah.
They have the sampler sets, you can get some of them in there, and they're just as good, but yeah, but that's about it. That's a commitment. Yeah. Like 10 additional cigars?
Yeah. I'm assuming. Well, I don't mind. I bought several of those samplers, too.
Right. But I have, about four years ago, someone had about six or seven boxes up in Rhode Island, and they sent them to me. No shit. Yeah, yeah.
Who's your favorite retailer? Well, I'll say that there's a store called The Cigar Shop in North Carolina. Right. My son worked for them for a while.
Okay. It's owned by a guy named Todd Johnson, who's a state senator. Okay. In North Carolina.
Oh, wow. There's a little bit of a family connection here. And then there's another store in North Carolina called Tailored Smoke, that's like a downtown cigar bar. Okay, yeah.
So they've been very good to me as well. There's Craig Cassett, Tinder Box, so, you know. Right. Yeah.
There's a whole little click there. There's a whole click, I mean, and you can't, like, in Charlotte it's a very different market. People are very store loyal. Right.
So they don't cross over from store to store. I'm a little bit of the anomaly in that, you know, I know a lot of people in town, so, you know, you kind of have to spread the love. You float a little bit. Yeah.
Okay. And now Cigar Hustla. Yeah, I got Cigar Hustla there. Oh, I mean, hey, it's like your second time here.
Oh, very impressed. But he's been in town for four days. Wow, I've been very impressed with it, yeah. Thanks, I appreciate it.
Yeah, it's a great store. We try. Yeah, that humidor was excellent. I mean, it's hard, obviously, as any retailer knows, like, you know, trying to keep an even balance and not committing to product and stuff like that, but thank you.
Yeah. Which, like, is there a particular lounge that you like? , I'm like, man, I really gotta get to this lounge, right? Yeah.
Especially traveling, I've hit a lot of them, like, Casa de Montecristo in Chicago is one. Smokin' in Boynton Beach is another one that I've hit. Aroma's in Jacksonville is one I've spent a lot of time in. Right.
So yeah, E1 Reese in Chicago is another great one. So it's a lounge that's in the Loop District right next to the overhead trains. So yeah, I usually try to hit some of these more iconic ones, too. And I can just kick back there as well.
How often do you travel? Quite a bit, actually, especially my older job. I did a lot of travel nationwide, you know, once or twice a week. No shit.
Now, a little less now, yeah. Right. Yeah. But I mean, I've had to take the podcast on the road.
I did one from Sweden and one from England in the last year. No shit. International. We're big in Sweden.
We've got two listeners. Oh, by the way, somebody reached out to me. Shit, I'm not prepared for that, but our one guy. In Romania?
No, shit. I mean... We have one new listener in Iran. Let me see.
I have a Jordan. Jordan is like... Yeah, we got Jordan too. Jordan, but I have a large number of people from Jordan.
" Oh, the one guy in Wisconsin. Yeah. Nice. So I told him thanks for listening.
So there's a little, you know, a little plug for that guy. Oh, there's that one Wisconsin guy. Yeah. All right, so what else you got?
Next question. I'm all thrown off. I know. Because I was thinking of something else.
I know, you just fucked me up completely. I don't know, you just fucked me up completely. What one fictitious person would you like to share a cigar with? Well, they kind of answered Hannibal.
Yeah, I guess Hannibal would be one fictitious person. That's an interesting one. Fred Flintstone. Somebody else mentioned Fred.
See, Fred Flintstone, he does smoke cigars. Yeah, they've shown him smoke cigars. Did they turn that off? Years ago, they used to do commercials, I think, with him smoking.
He didn't do it very much. He'd pull a little fire-breathing dragon out of his pocket to light the cigar with? Or they'd give him the exploding cigar and it would blow up on him. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, I'd say Fred Flintstone, yeah, I'm a Fred. I think he had a lighter where he flicked it and flint and wood went together or something. Yeah. Yeah.
Let's see, we did the favorite cigar, we did the best piece of advice anyone ever gave you. You ever seen the movie The Godfather? Yes. Never heard of it.
I'm not familiar. Of course. Okay, one, two, or three. The thing in The Godfather is Sonny Corleone, there's that scene where he goes crazy on his brother-in-law.
He jumps in the car, he runs to the car, speeds to the toll booths impulsively, and he gets killed. His brother Michael, on the other hand, was a little more calmer and patient, and he ended up living a longer life and surviving a lot longer. So the advice I was given is don't be impulsive, don't be a Sonny, be more of a Michael. And that's my friend Tony who told me that advice.
Well, there's two Michaels in the room. We go with that. Yeah. There you go.
Exactly. Yeah. You don't stop at all. Yep.
All right. Well, I guess that... You want to tell people how to get ahold of you, social media and your website? Yeah.
Your website? com. It's got all of our content and our podcasts are out there. Primetime shows are on all local podcast catchers, social media, there's a Cigar Coop Facebook page, Cigar_Coop for Instagram and Twitter, so check that out, and I know we're gonna have Mike on the first primetime show following IPCBR.
Yeah, I'm excited about that. We're really excited about that, so yeah, that's locked and loaded, so yeah, we're set with that. I feel like I'm a little different on other people's podcasts and stuff, too. Like, I don't know.
Well, we can talk briefly about the rebar show that you just did. Okay. What do you want to know? It was fucking awesome.
Why didn't you turn a light on? You're sitting in the dark. Hey, you know... Your patio has lights.
Your patio has lights. I'm getting a use of these things. The Google Hangouts, for whatever reason, doesn't fucking work on my computer. Yeah, well, the good news is you'll be using Zoom that night.
Boy, I'm glad you told me that now. And get headphones with cord. A corded headphone. You know, what's funny is they told me to just not use headphones at all.
Like it would have sounded better if I didn't use the headphones. Oh, because you sounded okay. Yeah. But as soon as you had to switch, because you tried to do the thing where you used one, and then you had one charge and so you could switch, and then you can't switch.
And then it died, yeah. Because then you're just yelling at them. That was when it killed out. Yeah.
But they had, you know, so the first time I did the rebar, it totally, for one, the video didn't work, or the sound didn't work. The sound didn't work at all. Was that a headphone problem that night, too? At the end, yeah.
But the other issue with it was like, it was just kinda, I think JP Fingers was a little drunker on that one than he was on this one. So like, they had their shit together. I understand why he's called JP Fingers, but what's up with his hand? What's with the fingers?
Do they say anything? I mean, they're like little nubby sausages. I don't know, we'll have to ask him. I could ask him for you, if you'd like.
Hey, what's up with your fingers? What's up with your fucking hand, dude? What's going on? And you know, it's funny, because J-Dub's kind of like you, right?
He's very, very, I think he's quiet, or he needs to turn up his gain on his microphone or something. Yeah? Because he was hard to hear. Really?
Yeah, you and the other guy were loud. You could hear that one of the problems. Because he almost yells, because his microphone's sitting next to him. Okay.
So, when he's back here, he sounds pretty good, and then he leans forward sometimes, and he cuts it out. Somebody has told me this before, but I evaluate every show I look at that. Oh, I'm sure you do. Now being the head producer of such a well-established podcast.
Exactly. Heard nationwide in 48 states in the United States now. You guys have really, I mean, I've looked at your numbers, and your numbers are pretty impressive, so, you know. Thank you.
They have been, that's for a new podcast. Great job, yeah. I mean, we don't know what the fuck we're doing, but, you know, we're having fun. " It'd probably be 10 times worse.
I'm not sure if that's a compliment or not, honey, but thank you. You guys are doing great. Here's the logic behind the dim light. Okay.
All right. Because they were both lit. That's why yours looked extra dark. Right.
So I have two dragons at my house. Yes. One is three and one is six. They're in bed by then.
What time? They don't know what the fuck bed is. They don't give a shit what bed is. Well, we do have this lovely studio you could use with the thing right here behind you.
Oh, yeah. I could have set it all up. Yeah. But, you know, it's later in the evening.
It's like eight, nine o'clock. I could meet you here to set this up. All right. All right.
You don't have to yell at me. So the dimmer light, kind of like, hey, fucking... Because it looked like the only light was the light from your screen. Yeah.
Yeah. Sorry. Were you wearing pajamas? I was in a tank top.
Oh. Just relax. Well, then you should flex more if you're going to wear a tank top. Just like, no.
Disappointing. So yeah, I mean, it's good to know that moving forward I will do better on the lighting. But you sounded good. You answered all the questions well.
You were well spoken. And I'm brutally honest. You are, you are brutally honest. I think that's the bigger issue with podcasts, right, is like, there have been some that won't see the light of day just because they were, the framework sucked.
It was too, hey, you know, I'm so and so, and I really like, you know, I represent this brand, and it was just fucking too textbook, right? We had that problem early on, too. Right, so like, you gotta, it's hard to kind of beat somebody out of that, right? Yeah.
I will definitely never be that fucking person, for sure. You've got to be committed, too. There's a lot of them that get started, and I don't know if they don't get the notoriety right away or they don't get the numbers they thought they would get right away. So then after 10, 15, 20 episodes, they sort of disappear.
Right, it's a marathon, right? Yeah, and you know the commitment. You're 71 in right now. I mean, I've seen podcasts come and go very quickly because people realize it's work.
Oh, yeah. It's work. And it's content development, it's production, so you have to bring your A-game, so it's not easy. We're always changing, we're always doing something different.
Oh, we didn't mention, this is a new setup, the table and everything, from last week. Yeah, we're constantly trying to tweak it. Yeah, we feel it didn't work, the three people at the table. So, but now, you actually get paid from your stuff, right?
Like, you do sponsors and sponsors. We do sponsors. You do a live one in the middle. Yeah, we do sponsors, and that pays the bills.
Right. We don't get rich off of it, by any means. Of course not. But, you know, we have to sustain it, at least, you know.
Right, right. We've had to increase some costs, obviously, going to something like Zoom and stuff like that. So, but, you know, in general, we've tried to, you know, make it affordable for people who want to work with us as well. Right.
So, it's worked for us. So, like, have you ever felt, like, a bias towards anybody that you've had? Like, maybe, you know... Like, Michael doesn't want to take any type of cigar advertisers.
Because he's afraid it'll -- I mean, here's my logic behind it is like, I want to be beholden to no one, right? Like, I have no problem talking about a fucking somebody with erectile dysfunction or some shit like that, you know? Which is some of the ones I've gone after, you know? Anything like -- for that, but like -- Bang, energy drink, we're still big with Matt.
Yeah. If I don't love a cigar, I mean, I guess it's one thing if you don't talk about it, right? Like, let's say something new drops and it's from one of your sponsors and you're not like -- You don't like it. Yeah, and they want you to talk about the new whatever.
You know, have you ever found yourself in that type of a position or something like that? No, I haven't. I mean, people will tell you, especially with the year-end lists, there's no favorites. I mean, Jack Taranio will tell you the story when he was with Duran, and I bumped them from the list and they were a sponsor.
No shit. Yeah, so, you know, it just, the cigar, it was a limited edition Salomon, it wasn't distributed enough and I felt it didn't make it. So no, I don't do that. The only time I'll say where it's an issue is if I'm sitting on some confidential information, then it becomes a little difficult if I have to talk about something.
But I mean, we had to break the story on Cornelius and Anthony that wasn't an easy story to do that. We broke the story about them selling the cigarette business as well. So, I mean, they're a sponsor of mine, so, but we try not to, we try not to basically get in a position where we're going to make the sponsor look bad. Right.
Of course not. No. But I mean, I've been critical of cigars as well on that as well. Right.
So, um. It's a fine line. It's a fine line. So, no, the answer is, like I said, the end of the year is always the telling thing because there's more people who are pissed off at you at the end of the year who don't make your list.
Right, right. And every sponsor does not make your list. Otherwise, I'd have a sponsor list. Here's the Cigar List and here's the Sponsor Cigars.
So do you pay for a lot of your cigars or are they given to you? Oh, I mean, look, we pay for a lot. I mean, if you see, you know, Davidoff, Viaje, don't send samples. I mean, I should say, Davidoff does send some, but not of some of the very limited stuff or some of the super premium stuff.
But we do get samples. It's part of the business. It's part of the business. So if you want to send samples, then 829 Del Toro Boulevard.
right you know this idea exactly you know the bloggers who weren't going to the shows years ago the ipcbr they got beat up a lot of these guys because there were other guys going there with trick-or-treat bags so the guys who were legitimate almost felt bad about one i'm not here for cigars well no you should be there for cigars you're there to sample the product right you're not there to build a personal collection i get that but don't have guilt about getting a free sample from And certainly, if you don't get a sample, by all means, that shouldn't stop you from reviewing the cigar if it's something that's going to do the right thing for your website there. Right. So, I mean, like, there's, I guess there's a question of notoriety with a reviewer, right? " Well, I mean, I can think of, like, the ten guys that I would give a cigar to without a question.
And then, for all those 10 guys, there's probably 50 that just fucking opened up a website that are looking for a free cigar, right? And that kind of sucks. It does. It does, but at the same time, we also don't guarantee if you give us a cigar, it's going to get reviewed either.
We try to, but we can't guarantee that either. But usually, if someone's going to take the time to do that, we'll certainly make the effort on that, to do that. But again, it shouldn't be about building your personal collection. Most of the guys out there, I think, are legitimate with that, but we had some problems early on at IPCPR, no doubt about that.
Right. " You know, I've been kind of underwhelmed right now. P. Carrillo's got something for the 10th anniversary coming out that I'm kind of want to see what Ernesto can do with that, considering he's had the success with that.
um you know obviously i heard of the skips cameroon is going to be get a lot of attention if that makes it baka is going to make get a lot of attention there i mean just because of that um but in general innovation has been kind of down so there's not something that's i think going to be revolutionary at the show this year right i think something will come out of the show that i'll be surprised about saying this was a really really good cigar okay kind of danced around but i think But I think Romacrupp coming out with a Cameroon, that's a big deal, that's a big deal, I mean, yes, he's a small brand, but he's got a huge following. For sure. Yeah, so, yeah. Okay.
Well, I think that pretty much concludes with all I got. Do you have anything else to add? No, it's just been quite the pleasure having another, yeah, I'm not sweating anymore, another podcast guy on the show, because I once had to tell him to get on the microphone. Right.
He's a professional. He's a professional. I don't know about that. I don't know about that.
He's been doing it for a decade. Yeah, that's true. Probably you didn't tell us to stay on the microphone. Yeah, well, I mean, I appreciate you.
Thanks for the opportunity as well. Thank you very much. Thanks for the great hospitality here the last couple of days as well. Of course, man.
Folks haven't gotten to Cigar Hustler. Stop here. It's worth the trip. Thanks, man.
Great people, yeah. John's cool. You did mention you were trying to move. Are you going to move down here to Florida?
Well, I'm working on it. So the idea is my day job. I can live wherever I want. I would love to live in.
If I go to Miami, right? Not my ideal, but I'm closer to the industry, my wife, I could go to Miami, but this wouldn't be a bad compromise to be three and a half hours from Miami. Well, Deltono is what, the epicenter of the city. It is the epicenter of the city.
You know, I was telling my father-in-law, I said, no, this place, Hustler, it's like, it's legit, they're a big deal, I'm like, everyone in the industry knows of these guys, so, like I said, I thought you guys were out by the Daytona Beach, so this was a nice surprise. Yeah, awesome. All right, I guess that's it then. Yeah.
Hey dude, again, thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for the opportunity. All right.
Appreciate it. Bye-bye. Hello. This is a prepaid collect call from the Correctional Institution.
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Show Notes
This week we sit down and chat with a titan of the Industry.....Mr. William Coop! Cigar Coop Himself!
Nothing happens in the cigar industry without "The Coop" knowing about it!
We find out how he gets his information, how he got started and where he is going with the Coop Empire!
Sit back, relax and enjoy the show!
We welcome your thoughts and ideas on our FB page "A Cigar Hustlers Podcast". You can follow the show on IG @cigarhustlerspodcast, Mikey @Cigarhustler and Mike Too @fcc_mike.
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