Episode 83 JB Enterprises and Yabera Clothing

Episode Summary

Episode 83 of A Cigar Hustler's Podcast welcomes JB and Joe Genovese — the Miami-based duo behind JBD Enterprises, Iconic Smoker and Yabera Clothing — for a wide-ranging conversation about the business of marketing cigars. The pair explain how JBD Enterprises functions as a parent company covering social media management, website builds, email campaigns, multimedia and event photography, plus side ventures like Deep Reef Water (custom saltwater aquarium design) and JBD Closets. They describe themselves as the behind-the-scenes "Tito" to their clients' "Michael," running entire brand platforms without ever taking public credit.

The conversation digs into practical marketing detail: how they build 20–30 hashtag "blocks" per brand and rotate trending tags, why they post roughly 10 times a day for cigar clients, how they handle their role as marketing directors for Aficionados in Pembroke Pines, and why a great cigar can still sit in the box if it never reaches the right audience. JB makes the case that you have to actually be a cigar smoker to market cigars credibly — many brands, he says, hire outside agencies with no connection to the lifestyle. Both guests position themselves as champions of boutique brands that lack the in-house marketing muscle of the big conglomerates.

Along the way, JB tells the story of how he went from "camera ninja" shooting events to being mentored by Juan Yunes of Coyaba, how he and Joe first connected over Yabera's cigar-themed guayabera shirts at Aficionados Pembroke Pines, and how their Iconic Smoker lifestyle group is used to pump positivity rather than just cigar photos. Guests are gifted cigars and an empty Coyaba box on air, while the hosts smoke a Powstanie Habano and discuss the brand's Nicaraguan production at NACSA (Nica Sueño), the sold-out Warbearer limited edition with its San Andrés barber pole, why Warbearer outpaced the SBC releases, and Skip Martin's role in steering the Warbearer artwork away from JB's original "Yogi Bear" logo idea.

The episode closes with the show's standard four questions — favorite cigar (both say Powstanie), best advice ever received ("never stand behind anybody who is not better than you" and "soar with eagles, don't run with turkeys"), who they'd smoke with living or dead (George Carlin), and fictional smoking partners (Heath Ledger's Joker and Jean-Luc Picard) — plus stories of smoking with Chad Johnson, Jason Taylor, Karl Malone and Rick Ross, contact info for JBDfirm.com and Yabera.com, and a listener shout-out.

In This Episode

1. 01
   Meet JB and Joe Genovese
   The Miami duo introduce themselves, Iconic Smokers, and their four-hour drive up for the episode.
2. 02
   What JBD Enterprises Actually Does
   A breakdown of the parent company: social media management, websites, multimedia, Yabera Clothing, Iconic Smoker, Deep Reef Water and JBD Closets.
3. 03
   From Camera Ninja to Industry Marketer
   JB explains how event photography opened doors to brand owners and turned into a full marketing business.
4. 04
   Marketing Boutique Cigar Brands
   Why family-run boutique brands struggle to reach the right audience and how the right imagery moves cigars off the shelf.
5. 05
   Hashtag Strategy and Posting Volume
   How they build 20–30 hashtag blocks per brand, rotate trending tags, and post about ten times a day for cigar clients.
6. 06
   You Have to Be a Smoker to Market Cigars
   The guests argue outside agencies with no lifestyle connection can't authentically sell the cigar experience.
7. 07
   Powstanie, Warbearer and the Factory
   Talk of the Powstanie Habano, the sold-out Warbearer LE with San Andrés barber pole, NACSA production, and Skip Martin's input on the artwork.
8. 08
   The Four Questions and Plugs
   Favorite cigars, best advice from Juan Yunes, dream smoking partners, and where to find JBDfirm.com, Yabera.com and Iconic Smoker.

Brands & Cigars Discussed

Linked items are in our shop. Mentions without a link aren’t currently stocked or couldn’t be matched with confidence.

Transcript

Welcome to Cigar Hustlers podcast episode 83 this week we sit down with the guys from JB Enterprise and Wayabara clothing sit back relax and get ready here comes the show. Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike squared, squared, squared. Alright, uh, this is episode 83. Hey, we're on.

Cigar Hustlers Podcast. Quite the technical problem getting this thing running today. Yeah, yeah, I mean it requires you to plug it in. Like you have to plug the fucking...

I was trying to think, we're seeing if you could be It's actually wireless? Yeah. It doesn't work. No, apparently you need the proper equipment for that.

Wireless for the wired headphones just doesn't work. I mean, he rebooted the entire computer. I mean, and to reboot our 1973 Apple, as my friend here, Mr. Palmer, likes to say, it's quite a process.

So now that we've rebooted it and realized that that wasn't a problem, it just needed to be plugged in. I'm tired. I'm sweating. I'm a worn out over there.

So now my headphones are plugged in. Yes. The sound check went well, the camera's running. Mic check, mic check.

I sound great, you sound great, everybody sounds great. We got Earl some new glasses, so hopefully that's fixed the system. Okay, yeah, I saw that. We almost had a replacement cameraman, but no, it didn't work.

His wife wouldn't let him hang out. That's what it boils down to. Probably that's what it was. I hope he listens.

So, gentlemen, why don't you go ahead and introduce yourselves, and we'll get this party started. I'm JB. We are Iconic Smokers, and I run JBD Enterprises. This is the man himself.

How are we doing, folks? I'm Joe Genovese, Mr. Guayavera, Iconic Smokers. You've probably seen me on Facebook.

We get around. So, where are you guys from? Originally, Miami. Now, Pembroke Pines residents, loving that.

All right, so you've been in Miami pretty much most your life? Yeah, yeah, my whole life. You too? Oh yeah, I'm a Miami boy, definitely.

Okay, so like, um, so you drove up here just for this? Just for it? Hell yeah. I'm so excited.

Cigar hustlers, hell yeah. The epicenter of the cigar work. You don't have like any hookers in the trunk or something, just trying to dump them up here, nothing like that? Listen.

I heard this is where you get them, I mean. Yeah, they say you walk into the store, you can find anything you need, right? Yeah, I don't know if you want to get the hookers around here. Finest hookers in the world.

You probably have more options in Miami. Better options at least. Yeah. So I see that I have, I have no notes.

Nope. So that's a good thing. He needs to sell cars. Because I've had some notes in the past and they were inaccurate, which was...

We don't fact check here. That's part of the longer. Which is Mr. Palmer's lovely way of harassing the ever-living shit out of me.

But hey, everybody seems to like that, so. Yes, they do like when I give you shit, Mike. Yeah. So, what made you guys get into what you're doing?

Well, explain what JB Enterprises is. What are you doing? Yeah, take over, buddy. So, JBD Enterprises, JBD Enterprises is basically our parent company, but we're in a lot of stuff.

So, we have Wyabera, we have Iconic Smoker, we have Deep Reef Water. We have JBD Closets, so we have a various network of companies that we just bring under one roof, and like right now we're doing, we do advertising for the industry as a whole. Okay. So we...

Motherfucker, you left the phone in here. They hide that phone in here every time. You said the phone wasn't in here. They hide the phone in here on us.

We actually, like, we're already doing marketing for several different companies, obviously, we can't speak too many names because of NDA purposes, but we then moved into the... Are there any names you can say? Yeah, nobody watches this. Nobody watches this?

Nobody in the industry. I've seen your subscriber list, bro. Nobody in the industry watches this. I was going down the list, but no, but right now, we actually, we're contracted with Bugatti, so obviously this is one of their...

The newer lighters that just came out. So we're testing them out on your cigar. Very nice. That's a good one.

So we do everything, but we do websites, multimedia, we run people's platforms, the entire platform, and you'd never know. So basically what I like to say is we're Tito and you're Michael, so we just make you look good and get paid. Very nice. So you're like another sex tape?

It's the sex tape of the cigar industry. Yeah. So I call him sex tape because it makes people famous. I love that nickname.

That's perfect. That's your new nickname. That's my new nickname. I'm going to use it.

I'm going to use it. Call me sex tape. So I have camera ninja as one of my original names because I used to basically, when people originally saw me, I always used to be behind a camera. I wasn't the guy to really have the conversation.

I'd say hi and everything like that, but I was on a mission. I was on a mission, you know, get the pictures. I was world famous for the candidates or whatever, so you'd be like, you've never, I had a person told me, you've never taken a picture of me, and then after I dropped the 10th picture, she was like, please stop, stop. Actually, I'm actually going to file this restraining order against you, now that I see that you have so many photos of me.

All through my bedroom window. All good angles. Yeah, good angles. But I look great in every photo.

Yeah, yeah. So how long you been doing this? Uh, which part? Well, the first thing that you did that was kind of in the cigar industry, what was, when did that start?

Um, probably like, probably got into this whole thing about five years ago? Three to five years ago is when we really started. Um, me and Joe connected, um, I've always wore, like, white braids, but I was wearing different brands and everything like that, but I wanted something that fit my personality and my originality and, uh, Joe, me and Joe linked up at, uh, Aficionado's Pemba Pines, which is a cigar shop down there, we sat down, I did like a presentation to him, hooked him up with a USB, I was like, here's some free shit, bro, thank you for your shirts, or whatever, you know what I mean, then like the next day, I bought like $500 worth of shirts, he's like, who the fuck is this guy? Can I curse?

Yeah, yeah, sure, yeah, you're good, okay, say whatever the hell you want. Awesome, we can curse. So he's like, he's like, who the fuck is this guy? And then after that, we went, we just went from there, and then, you know, once we started seeing how each other rolled out, We kind of created like this yin and yang tangent.

So then we decided to join forces and take over the world like Pinky and the Brain. Very nice. It was pretty cool how it happened, too, because as I was making these cigar shirts, I had a lot of companies reach out. I mean, huge companies, boutiques, all types of cigar companies.

So it really opened up my eyes as to what this shirt means to this lifestyle. - Right. - 'Cause, you know, this shirt has so many meanings to it, but the cigar aspect of it was, to me, the most interesting. So, when JB reached out and we had a cigar and he showed me everything, I already knew who he was.

- Right. - 'Cause if you're on social media, if you're on Facebook, you've seen his pictures. - Right. - I guarantee you, if you like the picture and say, "Wow, that's good," most likely it was his picture.

" You know, and then we realized, all right, you can do this really well, like, amazing, I can do this very well, the best I know, let's combine it and offer something to these people, to these companies that nobody's really giving them right now, at least in the way that we're doing it. So, like, okay, so I understand that, like, so that's kind of like, Joe, tilt your microphone up for me if you would. There you go. How's that?

Perfect. All right. All right, so with what you guys are doing, like you take a lot of photos for people and stuff like that, was that something that was actually a sustainable income for you, that you could kind of survive off of that, or did you have to do something else as well? So, like there's a lot of things, I mean the cigar industry, it isn't necessarily the highest paying industry, you know, so.

No, you're exactly right about that. I mean, it just depends on what position you're standing in, you know what I mean? Originally, I started taking pictures, I was doing it for events only, and then as I started doing the events, I started running into people, and then my work started to get out there. Once my work started to get out there, you know, you reach that point where people start taking credit for your stuff, so you have to step out of the shadows and say, "Hey, no, that's not them, that's me.

" Then I started getting hit up by different companies to take photographs for them for these events and everything like that, which started introducing me to like the movers and shakers of the industry. " You know, so I became like a, tried to become like the champion of like boutique brands because let's face it, you have the big name companies that are out there that's great and everything like that, but what about the guy who makes this fucking amazing cigar right here and, you know, I'm the only one smoking it. So how do I get that point across the rest of the world saying that, hey, listen, you need to try this, you know what I mean? Oh, well, it's in the car, but we bought you some gifts as well.

Oh, yeah? Yeah. Oh, nice. : I think we're going to try out.

You know, we don't just drive up. I mean, we actually just drove up here. This took this four hour drive just for you two guys because you guys are well respected in the industry. That's awesome.

I don't know. I am. I don't know about respected, but known. You're definitely more well known and well respected.

I'm respected, but you're not. Definitely respected. No, nobody likes you. You're very angry.

It's a good combination. I've got four of the shirts. They're very good. Very comfortable, I love 'em.

So you did aficionados, you said Pembroke Pines, is that Gary's place you're talking about? No, I'm talking about Alaina and Pembroke Pines, yeah, Pembroke Pines guy, I travel but not really, I haven't been to Gary's spot yet, I've heard about it, actually a few of my good friends, they go there on a regular basis but I haven't had the opportunity to hit that spot. That's great, dude. He's an angry fucker.

I love him. That's why you like him, because he's angry. We just get along. Just yell at each other for hours.

Totally. And then hug at the end. Yeah, it depends upon if there's drinking involved. If there's drinking involved, maybe a hug.

Is that with the birthday cake or without? Like the bang birthday cake? Dude, that thing is just way too fucking sweet. Way too sweet.

I see that we have one, an additional one here. Yes, it was a gift, yes. And that one's yours. Okay.

And they're delicious. Bang energy drink is delicious. Dude, they only gave you four cans. There's more coming.

I was told yesterday. She just got a nickel for saying that though. That's really good. There's another 12 pack I understand.

Really? Oh, yes. Hopefully it's not the sour one. Stop bad mouthing the product.

What? I like all the bang products, but I'm not going to be, I can't be that easily bought. Again, I can't. Too shiny.

Too shiny nickels. So, what's kind of the game plan for you guys? Where are you trying to go in the future? Well, right now, we're very good at marketing, right?

That's our bread and butter. So, we do Facebook, Instagram, Twitter. We do email blast campaigns, all that stuff. We build websites from the ground up.

We build websites overnight. So, being the fact that we've got an opportunity to work with not only companies in the industry, but companies outside the industry, We do a lot of work for a lot of well-known companies, and that produces our income, you know what I mean? And then what happened is, as we grow in this industry, that we're striving to do other things. We created Iconic Smoker, which is the lifestyle group.

I'm part of FCC, that's our group, but Iconic Smoker is the lifestyle for us. Because that's where you get to show your daily living, because at the end of the day, there's a lot of us who wake up, We eat, sleep, and drink this, you know what I mean, the cigar itself, I don't know, a day, there's days that I go without cigars, but there's days I don't want to go out without a cigar, you know. So I really enjoy partaking, and I really want to develop a relationship with all the companies in the industry, because I think that's going to be a great point, because some days, you know, these guys get along, the other days they don't, or whatever like that. So if you can be like the middle man and be like, hey, let's take a break, let's sit down, let's have a cigar, bro, what's greater than that?

So do you think that people that come to you and ask for like social media guidance, do you need their involvement at all, or is it just something that you do on the, you know? Really what it comes down to, if they have a vision and they want us to execute that vision, definitely we'll execute that vision to the best of our ability to make sure that it's on par to perfection. But a lot of times, and what I've been finding with some of these boutique companies, is that they're family owned and they're older generations, so you can make a fantastic cigar, but if it's not hitting the right people, and it's not hitting them in the right manner, whether it's social media, a cool picture, or somebody cool smoking it, you can have the best cigar in the world and it's gonna stay in the box. So how many posts do you think you guys do a day, not just per one company, like for all of them?

Anywhere between fifteen and twenty. Fifteen and twenty? Yeah. Yeah.

Okay. And it's different industries, too, though. Okay, so what about just the cigar industry? In the cigar industry, let me see, between stores and companies, probably like ten.

Okay. Eight, ten. Do you use a lot of hashtags for them? Yeah, so what we do is, based on the company, like, when we first get a brand, we look at your brand, right?

And then obviously we have to look at the product that we're receiving, right? We actually play with the product, test the product, see how it works for us, because obviously we're in a lifestyle. Once we get that, then we start creating hashtags. So then we create hashtag blocks.

So like, for example, a specific company will have like 20 or 30 hashtags for that specific company. And then we begin to trend different hashtags in between the postings and everything like that. Got you. So people can do that.

So you kind of like integrate it. So like, would Slapdick be a hashtag that you would incorporate for something like Powstanie and Cigar Hustler? That might work. Yeah, it'll catch on real quick.

It's already kind of caught on. Everybody looks for an opportunity to call somebody a Slapdick. Yeah, they like to integrate it. I mean, I don't deserve credit for creating it.

No, that was Skip Martin. We'll get that out of the way. We have to make you skip on every episode. every you know if you don't give him his credit yeah yeah so it's called who a slapdick um I just heard it in a couple different interviews and shit I mean he's also used the term douche nozzle but that just didn't really kind of didn't catch on it didn't really do something slapdick just has a logic yeah yeah so then we were I was playing fantasy football last year and I said what the hell's the name of my team he said like side saddle slapdicks done damn perfect Is it in your fantasy football?

No. You never hear him talk sports. So if I do 10 posts, let's say you do 10 posts, you integrate the hashtags. So, I mean, I look at a lot of different hashtags that are in the cigar industry, and I'm trying to determine if I've come across your photos.

So if I do, let's say that I hypothetically do come across your photo. Well, here's the thing, here's the crazy part about that. Yeah. You probably have come across our photo, but like I said, we're Tito, So we don't take credit for everything that we do.

So, you know, off the record, we can definitely tell you photos you've come across on the record. Yeah, you know, obviously, if you see, well, we're in the group as well, in FCC, so we do a lot of posts, like, in FCC, but we'll do our standard regular posts through social media, and then you'll see, like, for events. Like, say, for example, what's the last event that we did? I think it was AJ.

AJ at aficionados. At aficionados. In Pembroke Pines. Yeah, in Pembroke Pines.

Like, for example, I'm the marketing director, we're the marketing director for Aficionados. Back up on that microphone. Oh, thank you. Sounds like another robot.

Guiding the ship. Guiding the ship. Guiding the ship. We do marketing for Aficionados Pembroke Pines, so we take a lot of the pictures, we post the events, we kind of direct the direction of the events and everything.

We tend to try to build different followings for different environments because you know certain people like different crowds you know right so you have to cater to that audience so that that's the first part of learning what what you're doing and once you understand the audience then you can build upon that and grow the company itself gotcha what really helps too is that between the both of us and even some of the other photographers on the team we all have a very different style So there's more than two of you. Yeah. Definitely. There's always music to the music.

There's, you know, how he likes to call it is Charlie Angels, there's Charlie, there's us, and then the rest of the people. But it'll be hard to tell which content is ours, because we have such a verse, like, style, no matter what. So I'll do some crazy stuff for, I don't want to say any company names yet, but we'll do some crazy stuff for one company. We're going to get a couple of company names out of you.

They wouldn't mind it, but you know, they would be ecstatic actually for getting the shout out. But you know, I'll do crazy stuff for them, and JB will come and do some very classic, traditional, beautiful photography that's just very different. So, and that's one of the perks of this team that we have built here is that it doesn't matter, like we can do young brands, we can do the classic, older, traditional brands, it's just, for us, you gotta be a smoker to do what we do. - Right.

- You know? - That was one of the biggest issues that these companies were having as well, because they were hiring outside companies that had nothing to do with the cigar industry, right? So it's like taking that Corvette outside, and then you're like, here's the keys or whatever, by the way, it's a stick shift, and he's like, what's a stick shift? Right.

Oh, it's not a stick shift. It's owned by a slapdick as well. And it's not this slapdick. I have kids.

Kids can't fit in the back of a fucking Corvette. No, he couldn't go to Lowe's today because he couldn't fit in his car. He was looking for somebody to take him to Lowe's. How do you buy a Corvette for your fucking go-around car?

Right. That's a weekender type thing. It doesn't make any sense. Well, he has a weekender car's broke.

I mean, I guess if you're a single guy, whatever. But here and again, he needs to, you know. He needs to, I mean, that's really his thing here, he builds and fixes and repairs. Yeah, he needs like a fucking truck.

He needs a truck. He doesn't need a truck. But you guys tried that, the truck. That's right, he bought a truck that doesn't work too, didn't he?

He did. He's really good at buying, this is my brother, he buys really dumb shit. Really dumb shit. Really dumb shit.

So. He's got a Jeep that's a joke for you. No. I didn't enjoy it at all.

I've driven it a couple times, and I'm like, this is the most uncomfortable fucking thing I've ever been in my entire life. I roll out into the parking lot. I'm not an extremely large man, but I roll out of the car. Trying to get out of the seat, I feel like I got a hernia, man.

No, I need to be, you know, at level. Put a little slide outside of it and tuck and roll, you'll be alright. Yeah. Tuck and roll while you're parked.

Tuck and roll. Tuck and roll. And the payments. I mean, forget that.

The new one's beautiful, though. Next year's. I'm sure it's great. But, you know, I don't take care of my cars.

I don't really care, you know. Like, when it gets dirty, it gets fucking dirty. And, you know, it is what it is. So, it's just not my thing.

Yeah, I feel like that. Wow. To each his own, then. Yeah, you can take some awesome pictures of a really dirty car out back if you'd like.

This is the best dirty car I've ever seen. I mean, the inside's clean, you know, but it's whatever. Man, I am loving this cigar, man. Thanks, man.

So, are you gonna tell us about it, or what? It's a cigar, you know? You light one end, it's up from the other. Yeah, it's a Posani Habano, you know, it's made out of the greatest factory in the entire cigar industry, period.

And, yeah, that's it. It's rolled from fairies. There's pairs of fairies in the factory. Pairs.

Yeah, you know, 'cause you have to have the male and the female, right? So, they're together. There's about four fairy pairs in Nicosueño at this point. And, you know, they're consistent.

I don't have to worry about them. They do their job. They're, you know, and I wouldn't work with anybody else. Hands down.

So I thought the Warbearer was like your front-runner, right? Oh yeah, I mean, because that was our newest cigar, you know, it was our LE for this year's Ecuadorian event with San Andreas, Barberpool. I think about it all the time, because with the amount of products that we sell and offer, and some of them hit, some of them go wild. And it's like, all right, how do you identify what you did with the Warbearer so that you could just repeat it on the next stick?

Right, well, I mean, working with the right factory helps, you know. You know, and just kinda, it takes, it's work on every avenue, you know, it's just, the more people that you're in contact with that believe in your product, the more engaged consumers are gonna be, you know, the better you're gonna do, right? Yeah, I feel like if you're there, now you're gonna get there no matter what, and above, like it's with all those things happening, the good factory, the good following, the good branding, obviously, your next stick should have just as much success. Sure, yeah, I think so.

That's awesome, like, that's a great feeling. Yeah, unless I get greedy and fuck it up, you know, that happens a lot. Well, you did, what, 500 boxes on the Warbearer? Yeah.

So, and they're gone, yeah. Why do you think it took off better than the SBCs? Um, 'cause it's further along into the game at this point. It's got a lower price point, uh, than the SBCs.

I mean, but the SBCs all sold out of the shows too. Right, but you had less, but, I mean, you could have sold more, 'cause you oversold anyway. Yeah, we oversold them by, you know, 150 bucks. It just seems like the Warbearers got more publicity than the SBCs did.

Just further along in the game. Is that what it is? Yeah. Gotcha.

Yeah. When I look at it and say, okay, yeah, that's an awesome cigar, it's doing great, I haven't tried it yet, but looking at it from the outside, seeing who's supporting it, and since we're so deep into branding, I'm like, it's a beautiful box, a beautiful label, awesome logo, you gotta try it. So I look at it, I'm like, that's what I see before I even can smoke it, see who is around it, which is obviously a solid team. And then the packaging.

To me, if the packaging looks cool... I mean, to be honest, you know, I don't deserve credit for any of that shit. You know what I mean? Like, if I showed you the fucking logo that I had for this bear, and I brought it to Skip...

Are you a fucking yogi bear? It was pretty damn fucking close. And he's like, dude, no, this is, you know, we have to go a totally different direction. You know what I mean?

But like, again, that guidance is, you know... Is who I want to work with. The guy who's going to say, "Hey look, now you're fucking up here, you know, we need to do this," right? Because I'm not that versed in any of that stuff, right?

But even the bear that was chosen, I mean, even the history behind the bear itself was like, phenomenal. I forgot who told me the story. Actually, it was with you I was standing with, right? And who gave us the history?

At the show? Might have been Greg. But there and again, dude, I don't deserve that credit either because John, our head employee, told me about the story when we just got into Postanya. Years ago.

Years ago we brought that up. You know what I mean? So it's who you surround yourself with. Right.

But it's being able to act on it too. Yeah. Well, I mean, I'm fully prepared to jump off the cliff and build a plan on the way down. You know what I mean?

Like, I have no problem with that. I love that. That was great. That was good, yeah.

So I'm just like that's how I've always kind of lived my life I'm like hey let's try that out and if it fucks up okay well I'm on to the next thing you know but I'm gonna give it a hundred percent you know and that's kind of how I developed with who I'm with you know I mean I was working with other companies not making my own cigar but you know building them in this store and they fucked us you know they didn't give two shits about me so why would I continue to work with them cool But, you know, I'm not angry about it. Like, I'm not pissed off. I'm like, all right, cool, fuck you too, and we're moving on, you know? Always angry.

Yeah, that's my trick. That's why I'm not green. Hold the grudge. One of the key things that we like and we produce is putting our heart behind what we do.

For sure. You know what I mean? Because when you put that beat behind that drum, it makes a definite difference, especially with us. Sure.

People can smell bullshit, you know? So we personally are very selective. We go to meetings over and over again or whatever. And before we sign contracts, like we actually meet you, sit down with you, have a conversation with you, see your direction, see if it fits or whatever like that.

We work in partnership. We don't work for. So that's one thing that we make very clear. That's cool.

Yeah. That's why, like, I accidentally sent you a contract. Right. But you see how detailed.

Which you copied and we'll be posting on. Yeah. Well, it's the first page, so. Perfect.

Yeah, we didn't want to give a shout-out. Yeah, yeah, but he's going to post the contract. Check this out. So, shout-out to Bugatti.

By the way, I added a line there where I get 2%. Yeah. Well, that's on the seventh page, actually. Oh.

Yeah, so. He's got the one. All right. He scribbled it on the first page.

Yeah. Hopefully they don't notice. They don't notice and the guy just types it up again. So.

Yeah, but you're right. That makes a big difference. Yeah, man. I mean, the thing about us, man, is we didn't walk into this industry for money, for profit.

That wasn't our goal. Our goal was to come in here because we already, I was already a cigar smoker. I converted Joe. To a full-time.

Yeah, to a full-time cigar smoker. So I had already enjoyed sticks or whatever, but I kind of only stuck to a certain type of brand because that's what I knew. That's what my environment was. You know, when you hang around affluent people, they only smoke certain fields of cigars.

Yeah, they don't know what the fuck they're doing. Yeah, so, like, have you tried this? This is freaking amazing. This is the best thing I've ever had in the world, or whatever like that.

And you're like, okay. And then I go, have you tried this? Right? And then they go, oh, well, what's that?

I'll de-label it, give it to them, be like, hey, man, yeah, this is the best in the world. And then after they smoke, they're like, oh my God, this is crazy. What is this? Boutique.

And it makes a difference. Yeah, no doubt. Smaller production. And that's why we like what we're doing, because the boutique companies to us, they need what we offer.

You know those big conglomerates, they have buildings and offices of people that are doing things. But a lot of those guys are overpaid and they're not really fucking good at what they're doing. There's no passion behind it. That's the problem.

You're just paying a guy to put some things together that has no clue what it means. I don't know what it means. Which is back to what we were saying about, like, different companies that do marketing, but they're not immersed in the lifestyle, right? Right.

So then, if you're not immersed in the lifestyle, how are you going to market something you know nothing about, right? Right. So, to you, if you pick up any stick, right? Like, I got a couple sticks here.

I have these here. So, if you pick up any stick, right, when you see it, all you see is a different label, but you're thinking every cigar is the same. It's not. Every single one has its own characteristic, its own beauty, and its own smoke.

You know what I mean? You know what I mean? Yeah. So we blow smoke.

Right. We know what it's like. All right. We're going to stop here and take a break or we're going to, Earl's got to go to the bathroom.

All right. We'll be right back, everybody. com and check out a Cigar Hustlers podcast storefront with all your swag needs from the show. Okay.

And we're back on again. See, it's that plug-in thing that I've learned this time. It's got to be plugged in. You embarrass yourself.

It's nothing new. All right. What's your favorite cigar? The one that's in my hat.

That's a postaña. So, okay. Perfect. Good job.

Joe, same answer? Same question? Well, same question, but same answer. Yeah, because if I don't like it, I'm going to put it down, and I'm not going to pick it back up.

Joe also has a postaña in his hand. Definitely. And I'm going to finish this bitch off, too. It's good.

I'm getting ready to use this. Nice. I hope he's going to smoke the cigar with it non-staffes. Oh.

He's going to raid the place. It's getting ready to place. Okay, question number two. What's the best piece of advice anyone ever gave?

Never stand behind anybody who is not better than you. Oh, nice. That's good. I like that.

Who told you that? Juan Yunus. Oh, okay. I laughed because I remember when he told me.

It was a whole story behind the two because he's like, dude, like, when we met, basically, Mike met at an event, and he was talking to somebody about their website. I'm the camera guy, so I'm taking pictures, I have a young lady with me who's also taking pictures. I walk over into the conversation, 'cause I heard it about the website, 'cause the person's like, I need to upgrade my website, this is what's wrong with it, or whatever like that. So I'm like, oh, cool, my expertise, right?

So I walk over, like, I'm like, hey, you can do this, this, and this, and this, and they're like, you're just a camera guy. And I go, okay, but Juan said, yeah, but he's 1,000% right in what he's talking about. So she kind of dismissed me from like the beginning, but Juan took notice, and then from then on, me and him became like the best of friends to the point that he's my mentor now. So that's how we met, and we've been rocking ever since.

So speaking about Juan, I always bring gifts when we travel. So, I'm gonna give you a box. It's just an empty box. There you go.

You like that? And it has his, there's the stickers for Coyaba and everything in there. Very cool. Nice.

But, you know what? The reason it's empty, the reason it's empty is because the cigars, the particular cigars I brought were the 6x60s because supposedly these are the ones that I smoke, so I'm gonna give you a green and red label. boom wow these have been aged like really well too and then these are the uh the white and red label um mike i really want you to uh smoke that white label you got it i mean certainly an opportunity try that out tell me what you think or whatever and i know you guys are cigar guys so you guys are going to give me the unfiltered truth you know about how the uh the brand is so thanks bro it's very nice thank you no man it's our pleasure man i mean we walked in the door and you you handed us So you give us a cigar, your cigar, and I have to say, by far, it's fucking amazing, the ash, the burn, the way it smokes, you know what I mean? Thanks, man.

So you really did a good job on this. I was a little inundated when you guys walked in the door at first, but, you know, I got to it eventually. And we're not blowing smoke up your ass, 'cause I would put this, if I didn't like it, it would be sin. Yeah, right, of course.

" How do I get out of this? You know, like, this is quite the situation. Yeah, man. So then, like, I'll go leave it somewhere.

Oh, fuck, I lost my cigar. Shit. You know? So.

Joe, what's the best piece of advice anybody ever gave you? Listen to Juan? Yeah, follow Juan, for sure. He's amazing.

I don't know if it's advice, but I guess it's a mentality that stuck with me. And one of the things that took with me is we soar with eagles, not really down with turkeys. Right. So, to me, and it's something me and JB talk about a lot, I can be cocky.

Right. The way I was raised, my Latin background, whatever you want to call it, I can come off as cocky sometimes, I don't mean to. Right. But I feel as if you pretend to be a loser, you're going to be a loser.

Right. If you don't think you're a winner already, then you're never going to win. Right. So there has to be a level of confidence, and that's why when I heard you soar with the eagles instead of being down with the turkeys, I was like, yeah, of course, I'm going to fly high.

Hell yeah. So that stuck with me. I've heard plenty of advice, especially from Juan. Juan Coyaba gets very, very poetic.

Yeah. I mean, it's just like, it's listening to a poet lure it, but definitely, there's a confidence factor in this business, that if you don't have it, you'll get eaten up, quickly. I mean, I roll with turkeys, but there's some bad motherfuckers, they're packing for a Mack 10, it's crazy. All right, next question, what one person, living or dead, would you like to share a cigar with?

damn me george carlin george carlin yeah i don't even know if he smokes but just to sit there and listen to him sit there and listen to him and i mean that's like unfiltered wisdom that you can't get nowadays that's a good one i mean you bought jb some time but he still doesn't have a name i can keep going if you want that that is to talk about george carlin a little That is a loaded question, actually, because for the most part I've gotten to smoke with everybody I've wanted to, and even today, like I've, look, I've never sat down and had a cigar with you, and I've done that today, so I can cross that off. Really? Have we never done it before? We've never done it before.

Every time we've seen each other, we've been working, or you've been working, so you have to think about it. Even IPCPR. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, so this is the first opportunity I had it, so if there's somebody on my list today, it would have been Mike, right, I can cross them off today. Yeah, I smoke with them all the time, it's really not that big of a deal.

No, it's not. I'm just kidding. You're an asshole. Have you smoked with Ocho Cinco since you're down in Miami and shit?

Yeah, at, uh, what is it, Top Notch Signature, shout out to Jamil, um, yeah, Jamil actually set that up, or whatever, so I was there for the cigar release when he came out with the cigar and everything like that. I've gotten to smoke with a lot of people with um shout out to Bill Prieto because he allowed us to smoke with Number 99, yeah, I mean Jason Taylor, so that's cool. We got in the smoke with Car Malone We've got smoke on the water. Yeah, yeah, we got to smoke with Car Malone.

That's cool. We got in the street on the Fuente Got the smoke with Rick Ross. Yeah, that's cool. We got to meet him at the show.

Yes, a few people we've gotten to So I have an opportunity to sit down and have a talk with. That's cool. But, I mean, nothing more important than the press. And here you are.

Well, it's marked out his life. His life is complete now. The press he did the day. Thank you.

So are you a Dolphin fan? Am I a Dolphin fan? Do I have to answer that? Yes.

I'm going to say you are. I'm home team. Yeah, because you're rocking the teal Guayamara, you got the teal cross. I'm a fucking home team.

So, like, yeah, I'm a Dolphin fan, but I do have some other teams in the pocket, like, you know, 'cause, you know, we get to watch people play in our backyards all the time. Right. But, yeah, I am a Dolphin fan. Well, Tampa's about to whoop up on you tonight, so.

Sorry about that. That's what happened. His mic broke up. Are you a Tampa guy?

Yeah, I'm a Tampa guy, and I got another team in my pocket as well, from where I'm originally from. They're not any good. Yeah they suck. Are they fairies as well?

They're terrible. No, they're not fairies. Okay, alright. No, no, because I know you got fairies rolling the cigars.

Yeah, no, I mean I'm not that closely affiliated. I can't bring them into the team right now. Oh, okay. Yeah.

Alright, what one fictitious person would you like to share a cigar with? Fictitious? Like an actor, a movie character, somebody from a book, comic book. A comic book?

Hmm. We've had characters from restaurant signs. You always bring that one up. Cuz it's so unusual.

Restaurant signs. Yeah. John Carney. John Carney.

His family used to own some type of steakhouse or something, and there was some big Italian-looking guy on the sign with a... Did he have a cigar in his hand? I feel like all that's inaccurate. I feel like you just took two stories, you tied them together.

No, that's where he got the guy. No, that guy did not. From beginning to end. No, that guy was not...

It wasn't his family's restaurant? No, no, no. So who was that? I don't think that they had a guy hanging out.

Okay, I'm gonna go back and listen. No, no, they didn't have a guy hanging out, but there was a guy on the sign. No, I don't think that guy was there. That fake guy was not part of their business.

I thought that was a guy from the sign. It was a guy from the sign, but it wasn't his sign. It wasn't his family's sign. I thought it was.

I thought it was. So, my answer to that would be... Anyway, back to me, please. John Carney's not here.

would be the joker that Keith Ledger played. Nice. Oh, wow. Yeah, that's my character.

Very good. Because as sadistic as he is, he found peace in what he was doing, so I thought that was pretty cool. Yeah. I might be a little geekier than that, I'm actually like a sci-fi nut, so just about anybody from Star Trek would be cool with me, if they smoked.

Like you had an opportunity to smoke with one guy from Star Trek. Jean-Luc Picard. Yeah. For sure.

You're a Picard guy over at Shatner? Yeah. Yeah, for sure. He's younger.

He's not like, you know. No, it's the delivery, man. Picard, I think, was cooler than Shatner. Oh, much more.

Shatner was more in your face where Picard's stabbing you and you don't know it. You see that? That's just like that. That's when you know you got a good cigar in your hand.

That's when it's quality. If you make it to the pick, you know you've made it. There you go. You know, this actual pick is made by Rebecca.

Ash Quarterly. Ash Quarterly. That's cool. It's full of plugs.

What's it got? Like a gremlin on it or some shit? No, it's a skull with wings. Oh, very cool.

The other way. It's like a big bug or something. It's pretty badass. It's not really about plugs.

You know what happened? Because we've met so many people in the industry, people give us trinkets, as I call it, right? So this particular one was made for me. Little Lementos.

And it was the first one that she ever made for me. Well, the second one, the second one that she made for me, but this was the first one I received, so I'm one of those sentimental guys, so there's a lot of things that mean a lot to me, like, for example, my bag, you know, I have my kids on the back, me on the front. Oh, that's cool, that's cool, I didn't know it was painted. Yeah, so it's just, you know.

Who did the artwork? A guy, Tiki, I can't remember his Instagram, but he's in Connecticut, real great guy. I just can't remember right now, 'cause that four-hour drive killed me, but yeah, he did an amazing job, he's actually doing some private work for me now, for Art around my house. Very cool.

Oh, nice. Yeah. Trying to think what question I haven't asked. There's really only four.

You sure you wanted to smoke a cigar with him? Leave me alone. You guys want to give a plug, your social media, your contact information, your website? So, yeah, we have a lot of websites.

Yeah. We have JDB Enterprises. com. com.

That's number one. That's going to be very important coming soon. You guys are the first to hear that one. Okay.

Exclusive. Yeah. That's definitely exclusive. We have Deep Reef Water, which is my saltwater fish tank company.

He designs fish tanks. They're pretty cool looking. They're shit. Yeah.

So that's how I started making my climb to the affluent. Oh, that'd be a good way in, wouldn't it? Yeah, it was definitely a good way in. I got to design for very impressive houses and people and everything like that.

And those projects, now, back then I used to take on like a $10,000 project, now I do $100,000 projects and above. I don't touch anything less anymore. That's cool. com, 'cause obviously that's where my swag comes from, that's the, you know, that's what I champion, you know, with Mr.

Wyaberra here with me, my, this particular one says "Iconic Smoker" on the back, so this is like my introduction to, to that, the "Iconic Smoker" as well. And it's Dolphin Colors. Yeah. Yeah.

So, so you say. So you say. It's close. So you say.

It's close. I mean, if you said you were Jaguars fan, maybe that would work too. I don't think anybody would ever say that, though. No comments.

What else we got? Those are the core websites, for sure, and how to find us. What about Instagram names? Instagram, Deep Reef Water.

Oh, I'm sorry. JBD Enterprises is my personal one. Iconic Smoker is one of our business pages. You have Wayabera as well.

Yeah, Mera Clothing, Y-A-B-E-R-A Clothing. So, those are our Instagrams, Facebook, Jerome Berry, or Iconic Smoker. We do have the lifestyle group, which we pump positivity to on a daily basis because there's a lot of people out here who are suffering from all different type of ailments and going through stuff on their day-to-day lives that they just need, you know, that positive quote, that positive outlook. So we created that group so people can have a place to go to to feel comfortable and actually talk about their lives.

So we don't just only post cigars on there, we actually, we opened up, you can post your, you know, if you're smoking a cigar, you're with your kids, we want to see that, you know what I mean? So we want to, it's a lifestyle, you know what I mean? Do your kids smoke cigars with you? No, no, no, no.

If their kid is old enough to smoke a cigar with you, and they're smoking a cigar with you, then I can understand. But if you're doing anything illegal, and our group has a shit ton of rules, so if you can't follow me you will be bounced, and you don't give a fuck who you are, from the top to the bottom. Yeah. So, it's just the truth.

What's your Instagram? Cigar Hustler? Cigar Hustler. Yeah.

How'd you come up with that name? I don't know. I just picked it. Did the IG come before the shop?

Did it just IG generate it for you? No, no. Yeah, no, it was Post Malona's what came up. So, I built the website, and I was like, let me see what's available.

com's available. Let me get that. And kind of grew from there, right? Built the website, changed the name of the business, got on Instagram, trademarked it, had to fuck up some people because they, you know, they tried to roll with it.

I'm like, ah, sorry, dude, you can't do it. Like, I've had people that are really nice, I'm like, hey, man, I'm really sorry, but, you know, you're really close to my name, and you can't do it. They do that, and they've changed no problem, and I had a guy on Twitter tell me to fucking go fuck myself, said that's cool, here you go, Twitter, here's my number, here's my trademark number, this guy's in violation, then I got tweets from this random guy with no followers, fuck Cigar Hustler, that guy closed my account, and I'm like, hey dude, I tried to be nice, man, you know? Yeah, see that, I like that because a lot of people, they see us and they understand, like, we really are down to earth, we, you could be a billionaire or a dollar heir, as I call it, you know what I mean?

And we'll hang with you, we'll talk with you, we'll have the conversation. But the one most important thing for us is respect. If you have to give it and you have to earn it. Sure.

So, if you can't do that, get the fuck out our faces. And that's when you want to talk about his cocky spirit, that's where we get really fucking cocky. Like, if you're one of those assholes, get the fuck out my face. I don't need you in my life.

Right. And you meet a couple. Of course. Yeah.

Of course. A couple a day. Especially in Miami. The land of...

So, you have that fifth question? I think it's just how to get in touch with you. Yeah, that's usually the last thing we do. All right.

All right. Well, thanks. We're going to hold the other thing for another week. Yeah?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I think so. Sure. I mean, we can leave the room if it's Friday.

No, no, no. Well, it'll be on the air anyway. But no, we'll make a big fanfare thing out of it and everything. All right.

You really want to go nuts. I do. I do. I do nuts.

Hey, well, we've been waiting a long time. What about what it is? What about this guy? Okay, you want to go?

Yeah, we'll do a shout-out for the listener of the week. Yeah. Crazy Canote on Instagram. Richard Slalom White.

Richard Slalom White. Slalom White. I'm butchering names like crazy. Anybody named Smith?

That's a long last name. Anybody named Smith ever listened to this show? Apparently not. But thanks, Richard, for listening.

There's your shout out, buddy. Crazy Canuck. Crazy Canuck. I'm now following you on Instagram.

Sorry, I messed that up before. So, I fixed it. There you go. All right.

Thanks, guys, for coming up. Appreciate you driving all the way out. Yeah, thanks so much. We appreciate you coming all the way out here.

We appreciate it. It's great having you on the show and finally getting to have a cigar with you guys. Yeah. I appreciate it.

It's a moment of JV's life. Yeah. Life is complete now. With the Prez.

I'm so sorry, it's probably disappointing. And thank you for the gifts, guys. Yeah, thanks so much for the presence. Hey, man, we do what we can.

All right. Thank you, everybody. Thanks for listening. Thank you.

All right. Bye. Peace. This has been a Cigar Hustlers Podcast, a Mike and Mike production.

m. for all new episodes. Hi, I'm doing Hoostoe Raw. Yeah.

We just don't have to do a single podcast ever again. Perfect. I'm good, Mike and Mike. How are you guys doing?

I don't even have to try to end the record. We're going to cover a lot of ground here, Mike. All right. Try to keep up.

That's a sign of a good podcast. It'd be like four cigars when I walked in the door. All right, end this. Squared.

Show Notes

This week Jerome Berry and Joseph Jenovese from JB Enterprise and Yabera Clothing drove all the way up from Miami to come have a cigar with the Old Prez, so we threw on the camera, hit record on the 1972 Apple Laptop and put together a very fine show for you all!

So here it is Episode 83!!

Remember 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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