S1.E9. The Truth About Overworking in Hospitality – Jesper Skov’s Brutally Honest Story
If you’re a bartender, bar manager, chef, or hospitality professional, this episode offers relatable experiences, valuable lessons, and real inspiration for career growth in the hospitality industry. Whether you’re thinking of transitioning out of daily service or you’re just starting your hospitality journey, Jesper’s story will resonate deeply.
PERSONAL JOURNEY: HOW ENGLISH LITERATURE LED TO SPIRITS & COCKTAILS
Jesper’s career path is far from traditional. Initially set on becoming a movie reviewer or an academic, his studies in English literature unexpectedly led him to the vibrant world of cocktails. During his university years, he took on a job as a bartender, which soon evolved from a study gig to a passion, and eventually, a career.
His early days weren’t easy. Jesper shared how between juggling university, managing a specialty coffee bar, bartending at cocktail bars, and running his own consultancy, he hit burnout. Suffering from stress and health anxiety, he learned the hard way the importance of work-life balance and mental health, especially relevant for hospitality professionals who often prioritize others while neglecting their own wellbeing.
FROM COFFEE TO COCKTAILS: CHOOSING A PATH
One of the most insightful moments came when Jesper talked about deciding between a career in specialty coffee or spirits. Though he respected the world of coffee, it was the endless possibilities of cocktail-making that truly captivated him.
“Coffee is amazing, but with spirits and cocktails, there’s infinite combinations. It’s alive. You blend acidity, balance, aroma all changing with one ingredient,” he shared. The passion in his voice made it clear he’s right where he’s meant to be.
TRANSITION TO BRAND MANAGEMENT: A FAMILY-DRIVEN SHIFT
After years of bartending and managing cocktail bars, Jesper took a step back when he became a father. The long nights and demanding schedules became increasingly difficult to manage with a young family at home. His wife, a nurse, encouraged him to seek balance.
That shift led to his current role at Sprit & Co; a distributor and importer based in Denmark. As Brand Manager, Jesper bridges the gap between international spirits brands and the Danish hospitality scene. He stays in constant contact with those brands, helps develop strategy, plans events, and, like all good hospitality roles; still finds himself in Excel more often than glam cocktail parties.
VALUABLE LESSONS FOR HOSPITALITY PROFESSIONALS
Throughout the conversation, Jesper highlighted some crucial takeaways for anyone working in hospitality or looking to grow their career:
- NETWORKING MATTERS: Most of his career moves came from being recommended by someone he’d previously worked with, not from submitting stacks of resumes. “Your network is your net worth” as the old saying goes; and in this industry, connections truly open doors.
- FOCUS ON BALANCE: Burnout hits hard and unexpectedly. Jesper reminds us that even if you’re passionate, you need to maintain a sustainable pace. His commitment to mental health practices like running, yoga, and meditation helped him rebuild and stay focused.
- STAY CURIOUS: As a self-taught professional, Jesper never stopped learning. He took further education in market analysis to support his transition into management. His story is proof that skills from hospitality,multitasking, performance under pressure, and adaptability; are transferable and valuable beyond the bar.
ADVOCATE FOR SUSTAINABILITY
A strong theme in the episode was sustainability. Jesper is a vocal ambassador for the B Corp movement, which emphasizes ethical, transparent business practices; not just environmental responsibility, but also how companies treat employees and communities.
“Sustainability isn’t just about the planet. It’s about people too. How you treat your team, your partners it’s all part of it,” Jesper explained.
He encourages bars, brands, and managers to be proactive. From sourcing ethical spirits to offering work-life balance for staff, every action counts. His advice on bulk solutions to reduce waste and supporting independent craft producers was spot-on for today’s eco-conscious hospitality leaders.
WHY HOSPITALITY IS A PEOPLE BUSINESS
Despite moving behind the scenes, Jesper remains connected to the soul of the industry; its people. His motivation? Not just results, but the relationships.
“It’s all about people. The people I collaborate with every day, the stories behind the brands. When it’s just transactional, it’s not fun. But when it’s relational, it’s magic.”
Listen Now & Get Inspired
Tune in to our latest podcast episode wherever you get your podcasts. Whether you’re pouring pints, writing menus, or leading a hospitality team, Jesper’s journey is packed with inspiration and real-world advice to help YOU thrive in the industry.
🎧 Tune in now for the full conversation: raw, real, and packed with lessons.
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Transcript
The Truth About Overworking in Hospitality – Jesper Skov’s Brutally Honest Story
Auto-generated transcript; it may contain small transcription errors.
Yeah, that was my dream. And for for many years, I thought I would I were going to build my own company cuz it's illegal to say you're sustainable. You cannot say that. And then suddenly just boom, I went down with stress. For my wife, I think it was really really hard. For some crazy reason, I find myself in this industry of ours. So Yesper, thank you so much for being here and thank you for accepting my invitation to to this podcast. Tell us a bit more
about yourself in a very fast 5 minutes uh introduction. Yeah. Um, my name is Jesper. I am the brand manager of Sprint and Co. an importer distributor in Denmark, Copenhagen. Yeah, Denmark, the whole of Denmark. Um, I come from Albog in the northern part of Denmark and uh I live in Aus and then I work a lot in Copenhagen and my background is from the humanistics. So I have a master's degree in English and uh for some crazy reason I find myself in this industry of
ours. It's been uh quite the journey. Um from I've wrote a master's thesis on the branding of locally produced spirits in an international context in an English um university um education. So how did you do the transition with from that one? So you wrote it in the um in the university and then you end up in this industry. Was it planned before to always end up in this one or what was the initial plan? Well, I think when I was a kid, I wanted to become
a movie uh reviewer. That was my dream. And I started studying information technology. Then I dropped out of that because we had to do coding and I am not good at coding. And then I was walking around in the uh university bookshop h and I could see that some of the books they were reading on other courses English for instance was for instance some Charles Pukowski, American Psycho, Brad Eastern Ellis and I wanted to study this instead and I was thinking can I study this and
can this be what I occupy my time with? H I want to do that. And then I started studying English and it was very old school English literature, movies, culture, history. But then I started working classic history as a um bartender. Mhm. As a study job and that just became my day job. Um and I don't trajectory to that is I think it's a longer story than 5 minutes for in general I just I had it as a study job alongside my studies of course and
then I just got very interested in cocktails back in back then it was much more about the speak easyy wipbe so looking for old recipes from Jerry Thomas and back in the day and if anybody mentioned midori to you you'll be like ah midori no way A lot of things have changed since. Um, and then through that job I got to know a lot of people and suddenly I was copywriting for some whiskey companies. I wrote back labels. I did cocktail consultancies and suddenly the the
actual like university work life got pushed behind and I started working a lot with spirits and then I did my internship at a gin distillery. Mhm. uh little coupling to the English there and uh I wrote a cocktail book as my bachelor report actually and then I did my masters after my bachelors and then um there was some a few courses on um marketing for some reason in in the university in humanistics and then I just thought can I write a master thesis on spirits It's
either that or literature. It has to be one of those. Well, then I I could actually use a lot of stuff that I learned from the from the distillery, the gin distillery to write my stages on locally produced spirits and botanicals that are um what's the English word for it? You know, like a doc, like a parmesan cheese or these kind of things that maybe we could do something with Danish juniper from Samsu or something and then you can do that and then you can build
a brand on these things. So somehow that became my master thesis. Uh and from there on I worked at cocktail bars for many years and then I was a um the bar manager of a hotel chain. Um and then I got uh I got a family. I got another child and my wife said to me, "You have to be home more. So this has to change." And then lucky for me, I was contacted by uh um some companies to do uh spirit sales, but I'm not
a sales guy. Uh that's not my um big thing I think like knocking on doors and grabbing the phones. Um I'm I have skills in other parts. And then lucky for me after some time Oscar from Sprinter Co called me and said they had a position for me and that's where I am now. So that's from yeah being a study job as a bartender to being the brand manager of Brunen and Co. Um that's a that's a long shift and I see it as a as
a healthy shift. Most of the people they dream to go from the university straight to to a job but you have a bit more of um hands-on. Yeah, let's say like that uh path. I checked as well that you had um a company with consulting doing it for cocktails and uh and brands. Was it that included in when you were in um in school or it was after the school? Oh, I have to think a little bit there because it all is a big uh mess
in a way cuz I did a lot of things at the same time. Uh I I actually went down with stress. Um and then I um no I actually had dropped out of university at one point. Um, and then I came back to university because I just needed to finish my bachelor's and my father was like, "Come on, you know, you need one course and you have an actual degree here." So, I did that. But in the meantime, I was manager of a specialty coffee bar
at the same time, a bar called Secrets and was one of the first ones to do specialty coffee along with Coffee Collective and all these other big players now. And uh I did that at the same time as I was a bar manager at a place called Habadas in. So my my day uh my work day would be um get up at 6:00 on a Thursday morning, go open the co the coffee shop, go from the coffee shop at 4:00, have 1 hour walking around town
just spending time, killing time, go to the bar, open the bar, be home from the bar at 5 in the morning, get up at 7, go help in the coffee shop, work in the coffee bar, go back to the cocktail bar and that's manageable for a slight amount of time but you cannot do this for a long time because there was no sleep total lack of sleep and then suddenly it just boom I went down with stress um and from there on I worked a little
bit less in the in the sorry I'm think I'm going out on a on a limb here because you your question was you keep going it's okay it's good I mean I like the the way that you started to talk about um the overworked industry and how you started it as well. And for for many many people this is mind-blowing. Okay. How can you still keep two jobs and as a bartender waking up early is not one of the most uh usual things. No. And then
obviously you end up in burnout or in the end yeah you will cuz you can do it for a set amount of time and I think we all can do that but at some point you have to stand back and say okay this is not healthy for me. this is absolutely too much. What was the moment when uh when you when you realized that? What made you realize that okay it's too much. I need to step a bit back. I realized that when I suddenly had
experienced the influenza symptoms a lot of symptoms uh I felt sick. I had but I don't didn't have a fever. Um and I just couldn't manage to do anything. I just went total limb in my mind and in my body and uh I got anxiety uh health anxiety. So this was when I was 27. So it's yeah 11 years ago from from now I constantly battled my mind that I was having cancer or I was healthy. Mhm. So I'm a healthy 70 not 70 year old
27 year old. I felt like a 70 year old. uh checking for symptoms of cancer uh all the time, you know, including on my lymph nodes and D and I was super unhealthy and I was so worried all the time for no reason. And then I started going to a psychologist and he said to me, "Do you exercise?" And I said, "No, I I don't have any energy." And he said, "Try to exercise a little bit and that will make you feel better." And it worked
a lot. And then I started doing a yoga actually. I got a yoga um uh course by my uh my late mom in a um birthday gift and that helped me a lot to to focus my mind. Mhm. And from there on I went down in time in the coffee bar. I still did the cocktail bar and uh actually which is even more crazy during this time also had my own company that did cocktail catering. So I also had to manage that. So, it's just too
much of everything at once. So, I stepped a bit back from the coffee. Um, I had I I think I stood at a crossroads where I was like, do I go into specialty coffee or do I go into spirits? And to me, coffee is super interesting. I love coffee and I love nerding coffee, but it's it's um it's still in its essence, it's uh not to offend anyone, but it's like coffee and milk. And of course, there's a lot of different coffee beans. So if you
go to Africa, you have more acidity, usually more red note like Bon Noise, cold climate wines and then you go to um South America, you'll have more chocolatey nose is my experience as well. But it's still I mean and then you look at spirits and then you have so many cocktails like infinite options and all these cocktails also have different say for instance tequila. So if oh sorry I so if you uh if you uh if you want to make a margarita for instance you can
use so many different tequilas that margarita is going to could be completely different you can use different lime juices the freshness everything there's so much to play around with the coffee for me was more so I chose spirits so you chose periods and from that point you were like okay I will going to make a career out of it yeah that was my dream. That was your your dream in there? Yeah, that became my dream. Um, and for for many years I thought I would I
were going to build my own company to to become a a huge uh like something I could live off. Good. Um, but in the end after corona and everything with all the uh economic where you have to pay loans back and then you didn't have to pay loans back and then it's just so bureaucratic. Uh, I really admire people that have their own companies. Uh, I had mine for 10 years. I sold it to my uh my companion and he has it now and it's actually
going really well. So, I love that. Um, but I didn't go into it to do bookkeeping and uh all the bureaucracy about uh alcohol taxes. Um, yeah. Uh, I I went into it to make cocktail miners and make cocktails. So, yeah, that's super impressive. People have companies. So, yeah. But I but I definitely knew that I would like to work within our industry uh somehow. Um and at that point I did not mind being in service five, six, seven days a week. Um that came with
the kids. Um yeah. So how how was it to to still work five six seven days a week and still have that family life where you had time for it or how did you manage to to do it? Well, that was super tough. That was super tough. Especially when we had I mean when we had one kid it was manageable but then when we got my second daughter for my wife I think it was really really hard it was a lot. She was alone with two
kids five six nights a week and um when I was home I was super tired because I worked till 2:00 in the night. I had to get up at 6:00. That's when your kids get up. there's nothing you know they they don't give you any uh they like they want their dad and they should have their dad so it was tough it was manageable but again it's not something that I would be able to do for for for many many years I think that uh that
would be uh like priorities um because it was it was tough I mean uh it was really tough I guess uh having an supportive wife it's important as super important to do it. Yeah, super important. Was she accepting it or she was one of the reasons that you said, "Okay, I maybe need to step down apart from the kids." How how was the relationship while still working this many hours? I'm asking because I got this question many many times as well. Yeah. Like how can you
manage to have a social life and then how can you manage to still work in this industry six days a week maybe? No, my wife is my uh my anchor, you know, as a cliche, but if I didn't have my wife and my family, I would work like and not case because that's how it is, you know. If you work with something you're interested in and you really love, I will work all the time. So, she she she keeps me sane in a way, you know,
like and um and and my kids and it's the anchor. Um, but it's it's it's uh I think it's manageable, but you have to realize that I talk with some colleagues in the in the uh in the industry that are way older than me uh that have grown up kids, some of the the people I work with in my everyday life, and they always like, you know, when you I look back, it's the time with the kids that matter. And uh you really have to keep
that in mind. So uh so I think that that I work with a company and they had a a a theme called the art of balance and I literally think that the art of balance is what is important in our industry. You have to balance your social life, your work life, your family life, everything. I think it's a Japanese concept called eeky guy where you sort of balance everything out. And I think that's super important. Um, good friend of mine, uh, Declan Mgherk, uh, he taught
me a lot. Uh, he's been in the industry for many, many years. He's a guy that put me onto running. Uh, he he he's a guy that he's really inspiring to me. Uh, and that's also something about the the art of balance. Mhm. So, in in some way, he's one of your inspirations or mentors or let's call it like that. How important is to have that kind of inspirations into our industry? I think it's important to have somebody to look uh to look at and and
be inspired by. Definitely. Um yeah. And from uh from there from the point that you were in time, you swapped to sprit and call and then you swapped as a brand manager. Was it a big shift into your daily life or it was still working six days a week? It's a big shift. Uh it's still I'm always at work, you know, in a way in my mind. And I think that's uh that's due to the fact that I work with my hobby. I'm one of the
lucky people in the world that I don't I go to work, but I I really love what I do. So I'm thinking about work all the time. Mhm. And not in a bad way. Um what um what was the question again? Sorry. if it was a big shift and what was that shift from a from a daily life perspective? Yeah, it's a super big shift because uh I don't work nights. Uh I'm at home in the evenings usually and then I travel uh of course um
I travel every once in a while. I travel to Copenhagen a lot, but I'm also home a lot. So the balance is there. It's not six nights a week that I'm out. It may it's maybe two nights every second week. So it's manageable and you can plan around it. Also my wife is a nurse so it's not she's not flexible. I am more flexible than her in in that in that matter. So it's it's a it's super different. Uh I remember when I was uh I
was younger the big dream of mine was to to travel the world with the with you know spirits and everything. And I think it's a dream of of a lot of people, but I don't think that's too easy if you have two small kids. You you definitely have to find a way to balance it. I think that's super important. Mhm. And um and from a from that moment, what actually a brand manager does for for a company such as Sprite and Co as a wholesaler, if
we can call it like that, right? Or is not a wholesaler? If you can introduce a bit Sprit and Co to our listeners because maybe some of them they don't know it. We are importer distributor. Importer distributor. Yeah. So we import some brands and distribute them. But we also have a wholesaler lake. Mhm. And we also have glass and barware. Um so my job as a brand manager is to have the contact with the brands around the world and talk with them about strategies, plannings, uh
ideas, uh what can we do, what's fun, uh what works in Denmark, what can you So that's that's my job also all the borrowing excel sheets and tracking sales numbers and you know all these jobs. So it's like a two two faced job in a way. So you have the fun part that everybody loves it when you create events when you are in front of the people and then you have not so sexy part which is in the back with the Excel sheets or not so
sexy for everybody at least. Yeah that's u that's mainly what I do actually. you know, it's like uh you know, the police, they don't walk around catching culprits all the time. They also do a lot of reports and but actually, you know, the the the fun thing is or the the I actually like doing these backend, if you can call it that, things with the Excel sheets and all the planning and all this stuff because the commodity is interesting to me. I think if I had
this job and I was working with Wacom cleaners and I had to go to the Berlin Wackom cleaning convention or the Athens wackom clean uh show, I think I will be bored. Mhm. Or not bored, but I don't think that I'll find it as interesting. But because the commodity because the brands that I'm tracking the the uh the restaurants and the bars we work with are all places that I genuinely love and I have an interest in. Then I don't mind sitting with all the numbers
because what's in the numbers are fun stuff in a way. Plus it's also, you know, again the out of balance. I'm a very outgoing guy and I love being out but also like to be on my own and when I can sit with my headphones on listen to music and doing all this computer work is actually also balancing out my job. Uh so so to me it's actually uh it's really uh it's not it's not nonsexy nonsexy. Do you think the university helped you in a
way to be better on the back end side of the job? Well, you definitely learn like academic methods and you know approaches to tasks and all these things but and I just finished a accredited course in market information and analysis now from uh like an office business academy and that was super interesting uh to me um because I got to learn what I do. I just do it but I don't know the names. So when I'm sitting with with my teacher and saying so and then
I do that she's like oh that's segmentation ah okay I didn't know like segmentation it sort of gives itselfelves but all these things that you do I suddenly have a uh vocabulary for it in a way and I know like what what the actual theory is behind it and I did not learn that on university but I definitely learned how to write an an exam or a paper and do an oral exam and all these things that I had to do here as well. So it
it it it it it taught you a lot. I think that if you think that to be good at whatever you do, whether it's the spirits industry or it's the vacum cleaning industry or you're a cook or chef or whatever, if you think that you can only be good at this by learning that particular trait, I think that's a faulty. I think you have to, you know, stay curious on everything and and and broaden your perspective because there's things from a lot of other sides of
life that you can use in your actual work life. That's very important. So, you combine everything. Um, yeah. How uh how do you see the openness of the the brands after COVID and what is the approach that they they took after that? because it was a big shift for everybody and there's no doubt about it. Yeah. How willingness to brands to open more to different markets is right now compared to them? Oh, I think a lot of brands wants to uh to go out and open
new markets. Uh I I know that I get a lot of u emails and calls every week from brands that are interested in opening up Denmark and Europe. So I think that there's still a huge um interest in in opening new markets for brands. Uh that's at least what I see um from my side of things. Um, and they should be because at least Denmark, you know, sometimes I think I tend to compare like, you know, Denmark is as a market is maybe the size of
Hamburg as a city, but our culture around like culinary culture is so influential, of course, thanks to NMA and all these like NMA uh alumni that open their own places afterwards. And so the Copenhagen food scene is uh famous everywhere. Mh. And you know uh together with the Copenhagen food chain is the Copenhagen cocktail scene also with the Danish cocktails in there. Super good cocktail bars in where I live. There go cocktail bars in uh there's hotels that do go cocktails in Jland. You know it's
not just in Copenagen but Copenagen as a hub for gastronomy is very influential. uh you can just tell it's it's renowned for for for good restaurants and so it's it's an um it's an attractive place to be for brands because I think that the international bartis they also look to Copenhagen and look to our bartenders and our bars. So if you have a brand there, people will look at it and be inspired and maybe be oh that's a very exciting brand. Can we have that for
our market? And so so I think a demog is a is a very attractive market for brands. Nice. I mean um we know each other personally and we know each other out of the the camera life. I know you are a very big advocate of sustainability. Yeah. And uh recently I've been to an event that uh you invited me about Borp certification and how hospitality businesses can implement that or what are the benefits of having it. Can you elaborate a bit more on how did you
end up doing that part for Split and Co and what it actually means for us in hospitality? I think the I mean the event was it became a lot about BOP but in in general it was about sustainability and hospitality and I think that uh what with the BOP certification specifically is interesting to me is I know the work that it takes to get into to become a BOP. It's a lot of paperwork. You don't become a BOP if you don't genuinely care about sustainability. I
think that maybe BOP has historically had some certification um what's the word for it criteria that were a bit too easy. There are some brands that are BOP that I wonder how they are BOP but I think that they're working on that now. But in general uh to become a BOB you really have to care about sustainability and that means that when I see that little B greenwashing is not easy. As if you're a BOP you have to mean it. It's a lot of work, but
sustainability in in in the hospitality industry, I think, is a lot of things is also sustainability and the people side of things. And that's also what BOP does. It's not just about sustainability when it comes to environment. It's also about sustainability when it comes to how you treat your your employees to, you know, hours to gender equality. All these things that are super important. So, it's a holistic Oh, sorry. It's a holistic view of uh sustainability and I think that the holistic view of sustainability is
also the important one. Um sustainability is a lot of things and uh I think it's because it's illegal to say you're sustainable. You cannot say that it it's almost impossible. You'll get a fine. Okay. I didn't know that one. How come? It's just uh because I don't okay I don't know if it's illegal per se but if you say if you write on if you you say you make a water company and you ride on your water bottle sustainable water you re you really have to
have everything in order to have not the the food and health authorities come and tell you you can't no it's not sustainable. Mhm. So that concept but just like holistically speaking I think you know what's sustainable is a lot of things is also work life balance and it's also um how you you if you're a distillery how you treat your your crops and and everything and and to me I think what's sustainable is uh or sustainable what what I think is important for for me when
I work with brands for instance is that it's not only about growth growth growth it's about people and the craft and the what's the word the the actual you know how to go about it and you care about the quality of the product over growth I think that's important uh of course if if you if you think that people are not in this business of course to make a living of it and make money in the end. Yes, of course. But you can do that in
a in a lot of ways and you don't lose yourself in that. And that's some of the things that I love with with with with the brands we work with as well in Sprint and Co. And if I look at brands that I would like to have in our portfolio is it has to be people that are behind it. I I want to I want to talk with people, I want to work with people. And um that's that's the most important thing to me. Uh yeah.
What um okay you said you want to work with people. What are some general or what are some specific more than general qualities that that people has to to have in order for you to to see value in them and then the product comes second. I mean, they have to really care about their craft and the product and have a a real knowledge and a real, you know, passion for what they do. So, for instance, if I work with a cognac producer, they're not making a
cognac to make money. They're making a cognac because you're passionate about cognac. So, passion about what you do, I think, is number one. And uh so if I were with a bourbon or gin or tequila mscal, it has to be passionate people behind it. They're passionate about the the category they make, not about making tons of money out of it and then maybe losing their way towards that monetary gain. Uh and they have to do it with respect. Mhm. of, you know, the category, the land,
the people they work with, uh, the fields, all of these things. If that can come together, then it's super interesting to me. Um, now I don't, you know, Russ from Two Drifters, for instance, I think that's super inspiring the way he does it where he has this total holistic look on the production of rum from cradle to grave. So when they do the CO2 calculations of that product, it's everything from the diesel used by the harvester in the cane fields to how the bar throw out
the bottle in the end and everything in between from uh bottles to molasses to how they ship it to bars having lights on the back bar to light up the bottles that's also accounted for. I mean that level of passion is super inspiring to me. That really means that yes, he wants to make rum, but he wants to do it in the right way that don't damage the planet. And that is super super inspiring to me. And I can just see that a lot of the
brands we work with uh are curious about becoming like you want to know about like more sustainable methods or how to become more sustainable and and they inspiring each other and they work together, you know, across and that's so cool for me to see and that that makes me really feel also that we can really become like this, you know, have this portfolio of a of of a of a spirit family that that kind of know each other uh within Sprint and Co. And I think
that's uh that's kind of unique and I really love that. So sometimes I I I'm I'm reluctant to mention tons of brands here because I don't think that's uh that's the case. But for instance, I know some of our brands work together with some other of our brands to become Bor and you know they do a consultancy with each other. They ask me uh about what what we can do in Denmark to make it uh to to what works in the Danish market and what the
bartenders want. And then they adaptable to that uh because they're not big huge brands. They're people that listen and they're adaptable. And that is also a key. They listen to what I say, what what the team says because I'm just one guy, but the whole Sprint and Co team is really the beating heart of of our company, right? and what they say and what they tell me I tell the brands and from there on uh we can build um if uh if any brands are watching
it what are let's say two things that uh Danish bartender loves bulk solutions bulk solutions that's one of them because a lot of places pre-batch and it's both more sustainable and there's all the glass and handling of the bottles and time and So it makes a lot of sense if you're pre-batching. Um so bulk solutions definitely and also you know um working in in in more sustainable matters at least I think that's important. I know not everybody in the in the industry cares too much about
this maybe more about price and whatever but I don't think we can afford to not care. You know the the clock is ticking if we don't do anything. Well, well, what does it matter that maybe not my kids or my kids' kids, but then their kids what what world do they leave them? You know, that that's something you think about when you get kids like you look at the macropolitics now. It's a bit worrying, but at least I can try to do something within my field
of work and if that can inspire and if that can then I think that's uh that's important. But yeah, bulk solutions definitely a thing that we have seen uh coming on. But also, you know, we have we have we have bars and we have uh other things things all the places we collaborate with that demand organic products or BCO products, you know. So, if I have some brands that are asking me, should we try and work towards becoming a BCOM? Yeah, for sure. What's to lose?
You know, you learn something about yourself in the certification process. You you become better for the planet. You know, it's it's a it's a cool thing. Not to say that cuz I also know a lot of brands that are not BCO that do a lot of sustainable measures but they don't shout about it. And that's also because they're afraid of greenwashing. Mhm. You know, which I think is also a little bit of a a crazy paradigm. So instead of pointing fingers at people that try to
do good, maybe just help them and inspire them instead of say, "Yeah, you say this, but if you do this, it's better." Not that I'm able to do it, but I just think we should not point fingers at each other. you know, it's not a competition to become more sustainable because we all have to lift together and uh otherwise it it it won't matter. Uh we have to inspire each other and help each other and I think it's uh yeah it's uh it's sad when somebody
just points to things and say you're doing it wrong. Oh but we're trying. Yeah. Okay. So instead of pointing and say you're doing it wrong, I say I'd like to help you so you can become better and then we can lift together the whole industry. Uh I think that's important. No, it's uh it's definitely is and I see it more and more willingness for the people to collaborate with the with each other. Even with this podcast, we're trying to get different kind of people just to
help to give something to the let's say younger generation or the people that are stuck in a position where they don't know where they can go after. So let's say like that what are some skills that you as a brand manager have compared to or what are some skills that as a brand manager you have and you also had when you were bartending. What are some common skills? I mean you have to be outgoing an outgoing person people person but I also think you have to
be able to keep your keep a cool head. Uh I'm a very busy man and and and as a bartender you also very busy. Um you can usually are you I I used to hire a lot of people back in the day uh as a bar manager and you can always see you know how people act in a busy situation in a cocktail bar where you're super busy. You know do they lose their head? Do they lose the ability to calculate? So, like two cocktails, 75
kronos, how how much is it now? You know, you know, because you're too busy to focus. And then you can see the the people that have uh that I historically at least have seen a very good bartenders are people that can get a sort of a high of being busy, like, oh, we're super busy. Yeah, let's go. Let's do it. And that's sort of the same thing you have to to be at least that's a skill I think that a lot of if you want to
do a um a shift in work from being a bartender to even another trade another industry or if you want to work with you you know brands or if you become more on the on the business table side of things or what you want to call it. I think that managers and and and the people that are hiring in other industries should should look at ex bartenders and exhort workers and acknowledge the fact that these people have a are able to keep their hair cool in
super stressed situations because bartenders are uh you can keep track. You don't lose focus. Your station don't look like a mess even though you're super busy. You your tickets are you know you have a focus. So that ability to keep focus in a in a very busy environment be being busy physically speaking with with guests or being busy with tasks or emails and phone calls all the time. You can stay focused on on the task ahead is a super good skill to have in life. And
I think that's a skill that bartenders acquire because that is paramount if you want to be a good bartender. Yeah. Uh absolutely. Um yeah that's important. Yeah. From um from the point when we go a bit back in the in the time from a point when you were the bartender how how was your evolution to hotel manager? Yeah. Uh I was bartending then I had my own job of my own company sorry. Then I did a lot of consultancy on the side where I wrote these
labels and things. Then um I was helping to do a bar and some festivals. I do some festival bars and then my good old friend Hess from were approached by this hotel group. Uh they had to find a bar manager for the hotels because the plan of of this uh this chain was to the the the hotels that did not have a Michelin star uh or a restaurant that you know had as a mission to get a Michelin star had to have a bar that had
to had a super high level of cocktails. So they asked Tessa to help them to find a guy and he approached me and at that time I worked at a uh um wine bar in almost uh full-time as a manager. So yeah, I've been around coffee, wine, spirits, not beer. That's the only one I need. Um, and then he asked me if uh if I would be interested in doing this and um I had a meeting with the with the management and the owners of the
hotels and uh they were super interested in in getting me on board and I I got on board. Um so I was I was headunted for that job due to my curriculum within our industry uh and of course due to his knowing me as well. Mhm. So also connections again, people and people and people. Yeah. For our listeners that are not in Denmark, how do you see hiring processes in Denmark is more focused on uh on the CV or it's also based on who do you
know and how many people do know you? I think there's a super cliche meme on Instagram that says your network is your net worth. And that's a bit funny but there's a certain amount of truth to that I think. Uh because certainly when I look at my career path I have after the the bartending job that I had as a study job I have been headunted for everything ever since due to my network and my work curriculum not my educational curriculum. So I think that a
lot of people look at what you have done work-wise rather than your education. Uh, of course, you know, if uh now I don't hire people anymore, so I wouldn't know, but I know that I would look and say, okay, so if you completed a university degree, I know that you can work focused for a long time and that's a super good skill. But if you have that but you have no work experience that'll be sort of a red flag for me personally because okay super cool
but how are you in a social context how are you in a bar you know if you if I remember my father he he used to be an accountant and he always said that when he had these he hired tons of people he always said that when he had some people coming in with straight A's he was always a bit worried because but how are you socially So social skills are super important because you have to become part of a team and you have to know
that you're not a oneman army and none of us are. You know, no man's an island. I'm definitely not not an army in my own. I cannot do anything I do without the super team that I work with in sprint and I couldn't do it without my family. So, but I think the university degree for instance shows that you are able to focus, but then your work CV also shows you're able to focus. So, this is a focus on a simple task. Simple oh ahead of
you. Yeah. But the other one is a focus on a task where there's tons of noise around you. So, if you can combine those two, I think that's super uh interesting. But like I said, I I still think that there's there needs to be some sort of paradigm shift within other industries to acknowledge the skills you acquire working in the bar industry in a busy environment and that ability to focus. I think that there's an innate problem with that. Yeah. I um I had um Pedro
in here last time and we discussed as well of uh how how bartenders or ex bartenders are hired for different positions and how companies are more willing to to hire exartenders even if they don't have a degree let's say in sales they are willing to hire a lot more because they know their craft because they know the products and the sales let's say like that it can be trained and uh I think personally as well it's Uh it's a good trajectory that uh that companies are
going for and uh also I'm looking into it. But your profile it's amazing. You've been writing labels, you've been doing hotels, you've been doing wine bars, you've been doing everything. If you can sum up to one thing that it was most important when you've done that one what it will going to be one skill yeah um I think focus is an is a very very important skill but also but I don't it's not a skill but you looking at everything I've done it's always been bound
to interest you know that But I actually am interested and that makes me invested by that interest in what I do. So I think it's really about Yeah. But it's not a skill. But the skill is to focus. I think uh keep the eye on the ball no matter all the noise, all the things that come in from the side and extras all the time. You you you keep focused. But and I've been I've just been super lucky. Sometimes I have to, you know, do this
with my arm and be like, okay, I actually have worked with my interest for all my life, you know. It's uh it's I'm so lucky. A lot of people don't get to do that, you know. And if I think if I have if I had the workload I have now, working wack cleaners, I always come back to the wack cleaners. It's the most boring commodity I can think of. Um, I think I will been went down with stress a long time ago. But because I'm interested
and invested in what I do, my workload feels all right because I genuinely care about what I do. It's not a drag. It's not something I have to, oh god damn, I have to go to work on a Monday. I look forward to go to work on a Monday. It's okay. So, so if you can balance a focus and interest, I think that's uh that's super super important. Um yeah, nice and um then I have uh I have two more questions for you so we can
wrap up this conversation. We usually like to do in here one question that is for everybody and one question that is tailor made for for you. Which one do you want me to start with? Oh that's up to you Manuel. I I'm okay. Okay. Let's uh let's start then the one um that it's tailor made uh tailor made for you. If you have to to go back in time when it was a critical moment for you, you said when you were uh stressed, what will be
one thing that you will do completely different regarding my uh work life or just regarding the work life? Yes. Yeah. I think that I would uh I would have seen if I could focus earlier because I tried to do everything at once and tried to make everyone happy at once instead of looking inwards and say but what do you want? Do you have to both do coffee spirits and your own company all at the same time? What do you want? You cut off some things. Focus
on yourself. Start exercising. Uh that's something I do now. I swim and I I run and that keeps my mind in balance as well, you know, and I meditate. So that's important. Um, so I would have told I would have told myself, you know, take a step back, take a deep breath and look at all this and focus which one of these things do you think you want to put your time in and then do that and then cut off the rest and start and start
using your body and your mind. Uh, I think that's key. Mhm. I think the that's what I would tell myself if I could. That's great. And then uh the other one is uh what still keeps you motivated after that much time to still going after still waking up every morning and say I want to go to work. I want to do it. I think the people the people I work with I genuinely consider my colleagues friends good friends and I love working with them. And a
lot of the people that I have uh work that I work with from the brands have become friends of mine now, you know. So the people keeps me uh keeps me up and running. Uh I love checking in with all these guys around the world and see how they're doing and how we do. And you know a lot of the time we don't always just talk about trade, we also talk about life. And that is important because uh if we can only talk about cocktail recipes
and stuff then it's it's just work but I genuinely think that we talk about a lot of things that are not just work and how and checking in with each other and that keeps me interesting every day you know uh the work is what keeps us going but it's not what keeps us going in the end. It's also just the personal relations and that's what I love about our portfolio is that that there there's not these huge big brands. It's it's it's a people business and
I see that as a people business all around. Also the people business that you and me are sitting here now. So this morning I went for a run with Giorgio from Ruby. You know it's a people business. Yeah. Yeah. It's relational and that that's I think that's uh that's super important. That is that is. And uh thank you. Where people can find you? Oh Instagram or in general? You decide. Yeah. Well, on Instagram, my uh handle is the hungry cocktail guy because I also love cooking
and eating good food. That's great. Yeah, that's great. Yesper, thank you so much. Without further ado, thank you and looking forward. Amazing. Hey,