Welcome back to Cheers with Nat – the podcast dedicated to cheering on women in drinks.
Today's guest is Claire Warner, consultant and co-founder of the Good Measure Guild.
Claire shares how she went from studying law, to succeeding in cocktail competitions – yes, there's a link there – and how that catapulted her into to a career as a brand ambassador, and later in spirit creation and innovation.
Eventually worn down by the industry's demanding lifestyle, but not yet ready to leave it, she began to focus more on health and well-being and became central to the creation of a whole new category… of no and low alcohol drinks.
Always listening for signals and staying ahead of the curve, Claire now tells us where to look next: not at physical or mental health, but social health and hospitality's role in it.
How can hospitality serve as a force for social good? You're about to find out.
What stuck with me from this conversation:
On how times have changed: "At that time, so 2014/2015, you know, this concept of a non-alcoholic distilled spirit was a crazy idea."
On predicting the future: "I don't have a crystal ball, but I do love to look for patterns… I think I'm just quite aware of listening for all of those very faint signals and trying to pull them together."
On hospitality and social health: "I think that hospitality is the intervention for social health. And my sole aim, I think for the next few years, is to make other policymakers aware that there is a missing piece of the puzzle. Because there is a whole World Health Organisation commission on social connection, a 234-page report on what we need to be doing at a country level to help eradicate or mitigate social isolation and loneliness, and hospitality is not mentioned once."
On the importance of hospitality venues: "…not to be too grandiose, I think these are the places where we learn how to be human. We go into public places to rub along people who don't look like us, sound like us, dress like us, vote like us, perhaps. And that's how we build tolerance for one another. And that's how we learn how to rub along in the sand pit of life."
On networking: "It's the reason I think I am where I am today, because of my huge network and because I've always been really happy to do the cringe thing."
Links & things:
What we're drinking:
Claire's work:
Claire's drink reccs:
Recording info:
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