Today's Guest

Nicole Tanner co-founded Swig, a St. George, Utah-based drive-through "dirty soda" fountain, with her husband, Todd, in 2010. Over the next seven years, they grew the business into a 17-store chain before selling it to Four Foods Group. Swig has expanded into multiple states from that small beginning, becoming thousands of people's go-to destination for personalized sodas, customized energy drinks, boba teas, cookies, and other sweets. Hear about what differentiated Nicole's business in a crowded space and how they leveraged personalized service to accelerate growth.

Episode Transcript

(Please excuse grammatical errors due to transcription)

Hey, hey. This is Gordon Henry winning on Main Street and this week we're in for a real treat. We get to spend some time with Nicole Tanner. Welcome to the show, Nicole.

Nicole Tanner:

Thanks so much for having me. It's just a privilege to be on your show.

Gordon Henry:

I'm excited to have you and you have an amazing story, so I think listeners are really going to be interested in what you have to say. So quick intro on Nicole. Nicole Tanner is the founder of Swig. Swig sells customized drinks and delicious cookies and treats. She opened the doors to her first store April 2010 in St. George, Utah. Swig has grown to, last count, 41 locations in Utah, Arizona, Idaho, Oklahoma, and now Texas, and many more locations to come. What should you, our listeners, get out of this episode? I think you can learn some important lessons about how to take in an everyday event, grabbing your favorite soft drink, and turning it into a phenomenal experience that people will seek out. So Nicole, tell us about your childhood and what led you to become an entrepreneur.

Nicole Tanner:

Oh, goodness. So I grew up on a farm, a dairy farm in Idaho, and so I think that that childhood helped me to learn hard work and you don't quit until the job is done. It was a great childhood. A farm life is a good life and I had a lot of opportunity for exploring and interacting with my seven siblings and just working really hard and just nature, too. We were close by mountains. We were up in the mountains all the time. I love nature, love hiking. So I think it just really instilled in me that there's no option in quitting. You stay till the job's done. Those cows need to be milked morning and night. Someone's got to do it.

Gordon Henry:

No day off.

Nicole Tanner:

Yeah, there's no day off. And honestly, the restaurant business is kind of similar. You don't have a lot of days off. You are day in, day out in those restaurants and those stores. So I think it really instilled in me a good foundation of work hard and you don't quit till the job's done.

Gordon Henry:

And what inspired the idea for Swig?

Nicole Tanner:

Yes. So we would go to Sonic all the time, the Sonic Drive-in, and get our Diet Coke with lime because they have the good pebble ice, the good crushed ice. It just makes your drink, your soda, whether you drink soda, sparkling water, whatever, it makes your drink just taste that much better. And then at the end, you have some crunchy ice that tastes a little bit like your beverage. So we would go to Sonic all of the time for our beverage and for me it was a Diet Coke with lime, and we just thought there's something missing in this market right here, because a lot of times we would wait behind people ordering food, so it would be slow. A lot of times, our cups would be greasy or smell like onions or whatever they were cooking in there and I just wanted a fountain drink.

And if I didn't go there, I'd have to go into a gas station and unbuckle my five kids out of the car and take them into a gas station, which is really dangerous because they're going to try to pick up everything they can in their chips, candy bars, whatever. So I just thought there's got to be a better way and in a drive-through line, that was very personable. So from the start, I wanted it to be, "I see you as a customer. I want to get to know you. You mean something to me," and that's what we tried to create at Swig from the very start. We were sick of being a number in a drive-through line. We wanted to be made to feel known and I think other people were just like that.

Gordon Henry:

It sounds like you had a problem you wanted to solve, but you thought to yourself, "I want to launch a business and what I'm going to do is just sell soda pop and cookies."

Nicole Tanner:

Pretty much. The soda pop was the base of it. The cookies came as we were building the menu. There was a great bakery here that sold amazing cookies and so I'm like, "I love a good homemade cookie." I didn't want to bring anything in that didn't taste homemade. I didn't want it to look processed, but the Diet Coke was really the base of it all, if I'm being honest, and then we just spread it from there, the menu. But when we started, we did have all the good soda and sparkling water, we had smoothies, just anything drink related. We had energy drinks, but it did start with the love of a good diet Coke. Yeah.

Gordon Henry:

First of all, where did the money come from to launch your first Swig?

Nicole Tanner:

All us. We had no business loans. I know people would be like, "That's crazy." Again, another comment of people saying, "You're crazy." We didn't have any business loans. We used our savings. We found this old dilapidated building that had been around for 40 years. It was in a huge parking lot though, so I could see lots of cars wrapping around it. I could envision it. It needed a lot of work so we fixed it all up ourself. The rent was only $500 a month. Advertising, we didn't really do a whole lot. The first couple weeks, I was handing out flyers in all the cars in the city. I went to an expo and had a booth and was telling people what we are. Again, it was very boots on the ground. Kind of go back to the good old farm days where I'm just like, "All right, we're going to make this work and we're not going to put a lot of money into." And I feel like that's what you do on a farm as well. You just make it work and that's what we were doing. We were just making it work, but I think that's why it was so authentically received because they could see me out there just boots on the ground working it, and I was a person that they could connect with.

Gordon Henry:

And how long was it before you opened location number two?

Nicole Tanner:

Three years.

Gordon Henry:

Three years?

Nicole Tanner:

Yeah. We really wanted to make sure that it was going to stick and know who we were, but by year two, the lines were so long that we're like, "We have to look for another location." So we found one a mile down the road, literally only a mile, and it was an older building that we fixed up as well and opened that exactly three years later. Spring break. It went crazy. We were listed on one of the news stations in Salt Lake City is one of the top 10 destinations to come to for spring break, and it literally blew us out the water. We had lines around each store.

Gordon Henry:

Amazing. So tell us a little bit the business model. So about how many cars come through to Swig in a day and about what's the average ticket size? Can you give us any of that?

Nicole Tanner:

Yeah. We don't usually do 1,000 cars in the day like we did at our Dallas opening over the weekend, but I would say on an average, we are around 600 to 700 cars a day, depending. This third Dallas location was our 45th location. Some stores are a little bit slower, some stores are extremely busy, so I would say on an average around 600 to 700 cars a day depending on the store. And then the average ticket price is around $4, $4 to $5. We hope that everybody comes in and gets a drink and a cookie or a drink and pretzel bites. The average ticket price we're trying to get up a little higher is we bring in items, of course, so we'd love to see it more around $6 or $7 per ticket, but it is just a drink and so you can't charge $5 for a drink. If you do get a 44 ounce with all the good stuff, you're going to be close to $4. And we do have energy drinks and some higher priced items. We have Bobba. So the average, though, is around $4 to $5.

Gordon Henry:

And who would you say is your ideal client profile? Who's the typical person you're targeting who's coming through that drive through in their car? Is it a mom with kids? I'm stereotyping, probably.

Nicole Tanner:

No, that's exactly it. That is exactly it. That's the main base of our customers, is that mom with the kids, the soccer mom, the suburban mom and I'm one of them. Now all my kids are grown and I'm a grandma, but I'm one of those. And so we want them to bring all their kids or drop off your kids at school and then come get your drink, whatever that is. So it is that suburban soccer mom and it's women. It's a lot of women, but it's also men. It's working class men coming to get their energy drink or their drink of choice. It's college kids. We have several locations by universities. The first location is literally a block from the university here in St. George, Utah Tech. We do love our college kids. We have one that's straight across the street from BYU up in Provo. So a lot of college kids and high school kids, but the majority are the soccer mom.

Gordon Henry:

Yeah, I was curious. Technology. In building such a big empire now you must have introduced a lot of technology into the business to, first of all, keep track of things. There's a lot to keep track. You got to keep track of the inventory and the money coming in and the money going out and so on and so forth. Tell me a little bit about the computer systems. I don't know if that's your specialty, but what has changed in terms of systematizing the business?

Nicole Tanner:

Oh, my goodness, so much. So the first three years, because we were so mom pop and just figuring it out, we took all of our orders on yellow sticky notes, yellow sticky notes, and it worked great. Honestly, it was fantastic. We'd write the order on the sticky note, the customer would give it to the girl at the window or the boy at the window. They'd type it in on a Costco cash register, hand the sticky note over to the drink maker. When I think back, I just go, "How did it work?" But it did, because we were in it day to day. As you grow though, you can't micromanage it like you did that one store. So as you grow, you need the technology and the systems to make sure that it grows from point of sales, which keeps track of all of your sales for the day for each store. And we can see it at any moment on my phone. I can see what this store is selling. What do they need to sell more of? Are they down in cookie sales? Okay, team members need to offer cookies at every transaction.

So the point of sale is huge for us. That's how we track how we're doing at every location and you can dial in so many different things. We just added at all of our locations a timer that's at the window that will time how long that car sits at the window, which will tell you how fast your line is moving. So we would like for a car to be at the window no longer than 30 seconds. That's too long if it's past then. A minute is disaster or that line isn't moving because a lot of our lines will have 15 to 20 cars in them on a daily. At a time. Sorry, at a time. Not just total, at a time. So if we can track how quick it's moving by technology put at the window, by the timer, that's money. That means your line is moving, that means your customers are happy. So from that to inventory tracking items on our managers, it's an app that we designed that our managers can now, when they do inventory every month, they can just put all that in really quick on their phone. Technology's been key, super key for us.

Gordon Henry:

And it sounds like you have multiple. It's not one system that controls everything. It's a few different systems.

Nicole Tanner:

Few different systems.

Gordon Henry:

Yeah. Interesting. How has social media impacted the business?

Nicole Tanner:

It's been huge. For the first little bit, not so much because 2010 through 2013, 2014, it was just getting started, but recently, 2020, we had Olivia Rodrigo. I think you know who she is. She's a pop star, she's super popular, but she came through our store in Salt Lake City, one of them, and she'd heard about Swig, loves Swig. She came through and got a drink, took a photo with our team, put it on her social media. It went viral. Everybody was talking about it. And then she posted another time. And then all of a sudden, spring of this last year, we started going on TikTok. Dirty Soda was viral on TikTok. We've been doing Dirty Soda since 2010, but all of a sudden, the world is catching on to this Dirty Soda trend and it wasn't something that we were promoting. It just all of a sudden started happening.

So then we started going on the TikTok scene as well. We have our own marketing director. And so we started building our followers and we have a large following now on TikTok, but people were making Dirty Soda at home. People were talking about it. I got a phone call in May. It said NBC Universal on my cell phone. I'm like, "Do I answer that? Is it a scam?" Answered it. It's, "Hello, this is so and so from the Today Show. I'm a producer. Do you have a few minutes? I want to talk to you about Dirty Soda?" We were on the Today Show. So social media has been huge. Huge, huge, huge. New York Times picked us up. I just talked to CBS News on Friday. They're going to do a segment on us in November on their Sunday morning show on Swig and Dirty Soda. She just wanted to know about Dirty Soda. I was taking orders in Dallas and a lot of people, I would say, "How did you hear about us?" And they're like, "TikTok." I'm like, "Who would've thought?" She's like, "I saw it on TikTok and I drove two hours to come here." I'm like, "Wow."

Gordon Henry:

So it's really an experience. Two hours to get a soda is...

Nicole Tanner:

You can't get that anywhere. It is the experience. It's about how we make you feel when you're in our line. It's about making you feel special. It is absolutely the experience, which is what we started at the first. And it still exists. It still is there, in fact, more now than ever.

Gordon Henry:

Now, you have added to the menu, you've referenced that, but you haven't moved away from the core of the soda and the cookies, right? You haven't added other food groups and you certainly haven't gotten into cooking really, right?

Nicole Tanner:

No, and we never will. I never bring something on the menu that we have to cook and prep in the line because I don't want to slow down that line and I don't want to go away from who we are. I want to stay true to who we are. And we've added pretzel bites, we've added some salty, savory things, but they are very easily prepped. And so we'll change it up a little bit like that. We've expanded our menu to our sparkling waters and energy drinks. The sparkling waters and water based drinks have taken off like crazy. So we sell about 30% of our menu. 30% of our sales is sparkling water and water based drinks. It's huge. And a lot of people don't know that. They just think that we're soda and totally not. We have something for everybody. And people who normally would not go to Swig are now coming on a daily because they love their water based drinks. And why not?

Because again, it's more than just a drink. It is about that experience, and we're also doing good in the community. This month, we're hitting our Safer Cups Foundation fundraiser. I'm a breast cancer survivor and we pay for women that are fighting breast cancer. We pay for their bills, their medical bills. That's what was done for me 13 years ago. So it's very authentic, very organic, it's my story, and then it now is their story. So we are part of that community. We are hoping to raise $150,000 this month and our customers are the ones doing that by donating, buying Tumblrs, buying our stickers. It really is a huge, huge event for the month of October. We do several of those things throughout the year to where the customers can feel like it's their Swig. I'm coming to [inaudible 00:17:18] out because my Swig is doing this for people in my community and that's what we want to be. We want to be a part of that community and sell an amazing fountain drink at the same time.

Gordon Henry:

Yeah, that's a terrific story. I had read how you overcame your own breast cancer and obviously, now you've made that part of the mission of Swig, is to help other people. That's incredible. Let's talk a little bit more about you personally. I understand you have five children and you have three grandchildren and you're running customer success at this exploding business now pretty much across the country. How do you do it?

Nicole Tanner:

Oh, man. I think that you take your moments when you can to ground yourself. I go on hikes. I've hiked THE Grand Canyon twice. I hike several places here in Utah. I love to be outdoors, but when I'm with my family, I'm very present with my family. They were just all here for almost a week as my son before he headed out on his mission and I tried to be very present. I didn't go work in the stores. I was here with them spending every moment I can with them. When I go up to Salt Lake for meetings, our corporate office is up there in Lehigh, Salt Lake area. I have three children that live up there, so every night I'm with them. I just want to make sure that when I'm with them, I'm very present, I'm with them.

But they're a part of the Swig story as well. They were in it from the roots up, they worked it. They came up with the ideas with it for the drinks, and so it's a part of who they are as well. It's a family affair. Really, for me, I try to ground myself whenever I can as far as what's important and taking time for me when I can because otherwise, you would burn out way too fast. And when I'm home, I love to be home and my bed and it's so good. But yeah, I think just enjoy the moments where you are at that time.

Gordon Henry:

Do you ever pinch yourself and just say, "How did this all happen to me?" You're like American success story of entrepreneurship. It's amazing.

Nicole Tanner:

Honestly, it's all the time. When I go to these [inaudible 00:19:30] and I hear, "I drove two hours to come to Swig," that is so surreal. Again, we just wanted one store to work, but to have it be 45 and so much more to come and franchising, on the cusp of franchising... I've always known it was super special. One of our partners said, "You caught lightning in a bottle. You really did. You've created something that is more than just a drink." We say that all the time. We're more than just a drink. "You've made it super special to where people want to come because it's part of their day." So yes, I pinched myself, but it's also been an amazing journey and we've learned a lot along the way and we've made pivots and we've changed a few things.

Partnering with somebody is very scary and will they treat your baby...? Because Swig is my sixth baby. Will they treat it like I treat it and will they take care of it like I do? So there's a lot of trust, there's a lot of just uncomfortable moments, but trusting in the process and I don't want to get in the way of Swig, of what it needs to do. I'm going to be behind it, helping it to grow, and too oftentimes I think founders and owners of businesses can get in the way of that growth and be afraid of the change. And you can't, or it won't do what it needs to do.

Gordon Henry:

Amazing. We're going to take a quick break and we'll be right back with more from Nicole Tanner.

Susan Fennema:

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Gordon Henry:

And we're back with Nicole Tanner of Swig and just an amazing conversation of a true American entrepreneur. And I just have a few more questions lightning around learn a little bit more about you, Nicole. You're so busy. Tell me about your morning routine. What happens when you wake up in the morning?

Nicole Tanner:

I love to go to the gym. There's times where I can't because I have things going on. This morning I did not get to the gym, but I do go. I know. I'm an open book. I [inaudible 00:22:24] too much, but I do like to go. I do palates, I do yoga, I do things like that. Or we'll go out for a hike in the morning and get some steps in that way. So I will do that and then like to do some reading or some studying of focusing, grounding myself. And then I'm in the stores or I'm on phone calls, meetings with people, with leaders. But yeah, my day starts with a prayer, honestly. Starts with a prayer. Let's put that first, and then I go out and do those things.

Gordon Henry:

And when do you usually stop working, stop swigging? When's the end of the day? The business day?

Nicole Tanner:

When the stores slowed down and I can step away. I'm not one that's like, "It's five o'clock and I'm done." No, it is I will be there again until the job is done when they no longer need me. I am not on a timeframe. I will help you anytime you want help and need help. It's just until the job's done.

Gordon Henry:

You're an owner.

Nicole Tanner:

Yeah.

Gordon Henry:

Tell me, personal mentors, has there been anybody in particular during your life or career that helped you along the way who you feel really made you who you became and helped you be such a success?

Nicole Tanner:

I love positive people who are trying to make a difference out there and they are making the best out of every situation they can. I want to surround myself with those type of people. So from a podcast to just great leadership. Great leadership is what I look for and positivity. I can't in particular name one person, but I think that that's who I tend to gravitate to. I want to learn from everybody, honestly. I can learn something from all of the leaders in my organization. I want to learn from you because everybody has great ideas, especially if you're positive and happy at the same time.

Gordon Henry:

Are there any other companies or any other founders who you've looked at and said, "Wow, I really admire what they're doing?" Anybody out there?

Nicole Tanner:

Yeah. Chick-fil-A has nailed it. Anytime somebody says, "Wow, this line is moving like a Chick-fil-A line," I'm like, "Done it! Hallelujah." No, they just know how to move a line and they're super friendly. They get the customer service part of it and that's really who we are. We are a superior product with amazing customer service in a fast moving line. That's our three core. So if someone says that, "You remind me of Chick-fil-A," I'm like, "Yes." And I just love how they've expanded and how they've grown with some of that ownership in each store. They're a franchise but they're a little bit different, so I love the Chick-fil-A model.

Gordon Henry:

Fantastic.

Nicole Tanner:

You can count on Chick-fil-A. You can count on a great product with a fast moving line.

Gordon Henry:

Yeah, something's working, that's for sure. Every time I go past one, whether it's an airport or any place else, I see a giant line out there, so obviously, people like it.

Nicole Tanner:

[inaudible 00:25:36]. You can trust it when you get in that line. And that's what we tell people about our Swig lines. You can trust our line. We're going to get you through.

Gordon Henry:

Okay, my last question. What do you think other entrepreneurs or would-be entrepreneurs can learn from your experience?

Nicole Tanner:

I would hope that they would learn to not grow too big, too fast and you don't have to have all the things to start. You just have to start. You're not going to have it all figured out ever. You will figure it out along the way. Another piece of advice is don't be afraid for change. Change can be good and it can be exactly what's needed for the company. So lean into it, try it. If it doesn't work, it's okay. You tried it. Go a different route. So all of those things. Be present. Be present in your business. No one will take care of it like you do, but then you can also instill that care into all of your leaders so then they will take care of it like you do, but they won't know unless you show them how and if they see you.

Gordon Henry:

Well, Nicole, I really want to thank you for coming on the show. It's just been great to have you here. Such a fantastic story.

Nicole Tanner:

Thanks for having me. It was a privilege to talk with you and to share the story.

Gordon Henry:

And I want to thank our producer, Tim Allman, and our coordinators, Ette Barnett, Daniel Huddleston. And if you enjoyed this podcast, please tell your colleagues, friends, or family to subscribe and please leave us a five-star review. We'd really appreciate it. It helps us in the rankings. Until next time, make it a great week.

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