C&C Pod: Steve Kramer, Founder & CEO of Workjam - and Commerce OG

C&C Pod: Tomasz Pindel, Founder & CEO of Voucherify

This week Bill and I are joined by our guest Tomasz Pindel, co-founder and CEO of Voucherify. Voucherify is a Customer Incentive and Loyalty Engine that has built a reputation for enabling businesses to rapidly deploy and test promotions, discounts, and loyalty solutions through its API-first, composable platform. Based in Poland, Voucherify works with customers across Europe and now North America, counting the likes of Breville, Altitude Sports, McDonald’s, and Michelin among their many customers. Voucherify recently launched Vincent, an AI agent aimed at streamlining promotion and incentive workflows while connecting to other agents to bring forward market and customer insights. In the episode we get further into what Vincent does and why it matters. Our conversation covers a lot of ground: the incentive and promotion landscape, the pain points that drive enterprises to seek out a composable Incentive and Loyalty solution, and how brands are not ready for shopping agents yet. We also get Tom's view on how AI has impacted product development from someone who is living it firsthand. So please pour yourself something along with us and enjoy our conversation with Tom. Cheers! Please share! There is plenty of room for others at the cocktail party! This week’s drink: The Szarlotka Riff The Szarlotka is a beautifully simple drink of Żubrówka bison grass vodka poured over apple juice with a pinch of cinnamon. ‘Szarlotka’ is Polish for “apple pie”, and indeed this drink tastes like warm slice of pie in a glass. Żubrówka is one of the more distinctive spirits in the world: a Polish rye vodka infused with bison grass from the Białowieża Forest, giving it faint notes of vanilla, fresh hay, and a kind of meadowy sweetness that slots perfectly alongside apple. Bill took that Szarlotka foundation and built on it for a C&C riff - adding pear brandy for depth, a house-made cinnamon-cardamom syrup for spice and warmth, a squeeze of lemon for balance, and a few drops of saline to pull everything together. The result keeps the apple-pie soul of the original but gives it more structure and nuance. An egg white is optional but adds a silky texture that rounds out the spice nicely. Cheers! Cocktail Spec: The Szarlotka Riff 1.5 oz. - Żubrówka Bison Grass Vodka 0.75 oz. - Fresh unfiltered apple juice (fresh-pressed if you can get it) 0.5 oz. - Pear brandy (St. George or similar) 0.25 oz. - Cinnamon-cardamom syrup (see below) Scant 0.25 oz. - Fresh lemon juice 2 drops - Saline solution (20% solution, pinch of sea salt as an alternative) 0.5 oz. - Egg white (optional, for texture) Garnish - Cinnamon stick and fresh thyme sprig Steps: If using egg white, dry shake all ingredients without ice for 10–15 seconds to emulsify. Add ice and shake again until well chilled. Strain into a chilled coupe. Garnish with a cinnamon stick and thyme sprig. How to make the Cinnamon-Cardamom Syrup 1 cup sugar + 1 cup water 2–3 Ceylon cinnamon sticks 6–8 green cardamom pods, lightly crushed Steps: Stir sugar and water over low heat. Add cinnamon and cardamom. Steep until fragrant, tasting often - the cardamom will turn to a medicinal flavor if left too long. Strain and cool. Add a capful of high-proof vodka to preserve which helps keep it for a couple of months if refrigerated. Enjoy! Please subscribe! We want to be sure you make it to the next party! Cheers! As always, it’s great to have you here! If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, share, rate (it helps!), and let us know your thoughts. We love to hear from our listeners. Be well, drink well, and here is to good business! Cheers! - Brian & Bill Cocktails & Commerce™ is a wholly owned subsidiary of StrategyēM, LLC [https://www.strategyem.com/]. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit cocktailsand.substack.com [https://cocktailsand.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

C&C Pod: Steve Papa, Commerce OG - Endeca, Toast, and Parallel Wireless

Another episode with a true Commerce OG. This week Steve Papa joins us to explore the founding and growth-path of Endeca — the commerce search and guided navigation platform that became the de facto standard for retail eCommerce discovery in the 2000s. Endeca climbed to powering roughly half of the top 100 eCommerce sites before being acquired by Oracle in 2011. If you were building a serious retail site in that era, you almost certainly had Endeca under the hood - and many still do. Beyond Endeca, Steve was an early investor in Toast — writing the first check when every VC in the room said restaurant tech was a dead end — and he is now founder and CEO of Parallel Wireless, which is building trusted, scalable, secure cellular network infrastructure. It is a mission-driven effort operating at the intersection of national security, connectivity, and the physical infrastructure that communications, commerce, and digital experiences of all kinds will increasingly depend on. He is also an investor in Product Genius, an AI-native product enrichment and CX experience solution. It’s a great conversation, so pour yourself something to sip along with us and enjoy our wonderful conversation with Steve. Cheers! Episode Chapters: * Welcome and exploring the thousand year history of the shrub - a great NA drink that is easy to make, healthful, and can certainly be spiked. * Steve Papa, the latest inductee to the C&C Commerce OG’s. * The founding of Endeca in 1999 — the million-or-none problem, a bottle of Sinatra wine on eBay, and why guided navigation was the real insight. * How Endeca built arguably the first in-memory graph database and what made that such a significant innovation. * Endeca’s surprising first customer and it’s clever path to its big break: driving traffic to a potential customer before they ever called them. * Surviving the dot-com crash — closing $2M in Q4 2001 and why hiding that you were an eCommerce company was the only way to get funded. * The Endeca–hybris partnership: how Steve came across hybris in 2008, sent Carsten Thoma a cold email, and what may have been. * Endeca Latitude — the in-memory analytics pivot born from the financial crisis, and why it ultimately didn’t survive the Oracle acquisition. And how commerce was the real driver behind Oracle’s acquisition of Endeca in 2011. * The Toast origin story: the split-tab app that went nowhere, the conversation with restaurant owners that changed everything, and why Steve wrote the first check when every VC passed. * Toast’s unlock: how bundling payments doubled ARPU, enabled a direct salesforce, and became Toast’s real distribution innovation. * Parallel Wireless: what’s behind it, what happened when the US lost its ability to build wireless networks, what Salt Typhoon tells us about infrastructure vulnerability, and why this is mission-driven work. * AI at the edge: what the compute on your phone is already enabling, and why the walled gardens are the real limiter. * Product Genius: what today’s AI unlocks - driving conversion with real-time behavioral signals. * Final question: after a successful day somewhere in the world, what are we having at the party once the robots take over. Please share! These OG stories deserve to be heard — email it, Slack it, send it to the group chat. Just f*****g share it! This week’s drink: Orange Ginger Shrub A shrub — often called drinking vinegar — is fruit, sugar, and vinegar combined into a concentrated syrup that you mix into drinks and dilute. Shrubs and drinking vinegars go back in human civilization for over a thousand years - with the word itself from the Arabic sharaab, which is also the root of the words sherbet and syrup. During the colonial times in America, shrubs were everywhere — and essentially the first energy drink - potable, easy to make with available fruit, and extended with water. Shrubs essentially disappeared for about a century when prohibition, refrigeration, and commercial soft-drinks (especially Coca Cola) all arrived at once, and have been quietly hovering in the background ever since. The sobriety movement and growing interest in NA cocktails and mocktails have led shrubs to a resurgence as they can pack a lot of flavor, last a long time while refrigerated, and can be simply diluted in sparkling water or into more complex drinks. And of course, they are great modifier in cocktails as well. Today’s version, inspired by Steve, is orange and ginger — no alcohol required, though it welcomes a spirit if you’re so inclined. Bill made his with blood orange juice for a touch of extra sweetness and a quick hot-process ginger syrup finished with apple cider vinegar. Brian went a different direction, adding oleo-sacrum — a centuries-old technique of extracting citrus oils from peels using sugar — as part of the sweetener, which adds a clean bitterness and a layer of aromatic depth that the juice alone doesn’t have. It’s a genuinely refreshing drink, and the vinegar — which sounds odd if you’ve never had a shrub — doesn’t make it taste sour. It makes it taste more alive. Cheers! Orange-Ginger Shrub Mocktail 1 oz. — Orange ginger shrub (recipe below) 2–3 oz. — Sparkling water or club soda Optional 1 oz. — Spirit of choice: gin, vodka, bourbon, or tequila all work Garnish — Rosemary sprig or cinnamon stick, with a dehydrated orange slice if you have one Steps: Add all ingredients to a tall glass over ice. Stir gently to incorporate and garnish. Recipe: Orange-Ginger Shrub Syrup Juice of 3–4 medium oranges (blood oranges recommended for color and sweetness) 3-inch knob of fresh ginger, peeled and sliced 1 cup granulated sugar ¾ cup apple cider vinegar or champagne vinegar Optional: 1 cinnamon stick and 5–6 whole cloves Steps: Combine 1 cup water, sugar, ginger, and any spices in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, then simmer on low for 10–15 minutes until reduced by half. Let cool completely, then strain. Stir in the orange juice and vinegar. Adjust vinegar to taste. Once made, the shrub keeps for 18–24 months. Enjoy! Please subscribe! We want to be sure you make it to the next party! Cheers! As always, it’s great to have you here! If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, share, rate (it helps!), and let us know your thoughts. We love to hear from our listeners. Be well, drink well, and here is to good business! Cheers! - Brian & Bill Cocktails & Commerce™ is a wholly owned subsidiary of StrategyēM, LLC [https://www.strategyem.com/]. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit cocktailsand.substack.com [https://cocktailsand.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

C&C Pod: Steve Kramer, Founder & CEO of Workjam - and Commerce OG

Bill and I are both saddened and excited about this episode. This is the first of a series we are calling the “OG Series”, where C&C talks to a commerce OG about the early days, what they are up to now, and where the party is joining to be when the robots take over. First up: Remembering Jon Panella But before we get into the episode, we want to first acknowledge an OG our industry recently lost - Jon Panella [https://www.linkedin.com/in/jon-panella-b616911/]. Jon was exactly the kind of person we had in mind when we first mapped out the OG Series — in fact, he was one of the very first names on the list. We deeply regret that we didn’t get the chance to sit down with him before we lost him. So we dedicate this episode - the first of the OG Series - to Jon. Godspeed, love, and peace, my friend. And let’s go Steelers! This weeks guest: Steve Kramer, Commerce OG & Workjam Founder & CEO With that said, we have been looking forward to this one for a long time. Steve Kramer [https://www.linkedin.com/in/steven-kramer-7b42144/] is a also a genuine Commerce OG. Steve was the founder of iCongo, one of the early enterprise commerce platforms, before then merging with hybris in what became one of the defining deals of the commerce platform era. Steve went on to lead North America for hybris during its extraordinary run of growth, pre- and post-SAP acquisition, before departing to co-found WorkJam [https://www.workjam.com/], where he serves today as CEO. WorkJam is an interesting solution adjacent and intertwined with commerce tech, it is now the leading digital frontline workplace platform — used by major retailers and service businesses worldwide to empower, communicate with, and schedule the people who actually run the floor, the store, and the line. It is a category that has historically been one of the most underserved in enterprise software, and Steve has spent a decade making the case that it doesn’t have to be. This conversation covers a lot of ground. We go deep into the founding and growth of iCongo, the iCongo–hybris merger and the cultural magic that followed, and the WorkJam founding story. We also dig up some funny stories, then turn to how AI is changing the experience of the frontline worker — not just the manager, not just the HR team, but the person on the floor making things happen for customers and operations. For those of us who lived through the early commerce platform wars, this episode is a bit of an oral history. For those who didn’t, it’s a window into where so many of the assumptions and architecture patterns we work with today actually came from. So please pour yourself something to sip along with us and enjoy our wonderful conversation with Steve. Cheers! Episode Chapters: * Anointing the first official C&C Commerce OG — the induction ceremony and the swag. * The cocktail: what a freezer-cold Tequila Martini says about a person. * The iCongo founding story — starting a commerce company in Montreal with his father in 1999. * How iCongo built a real edge in order management and B2B commerce before most platforms were thinking about it. * Early omnichannel innovation: buy online, pick up in store and endless aisle before those were industry buzzwords. * The iCongo–hybris merger — the deal behind the deal, and the legendary Octoberfest integration trip. * Why culture made the integration work — and what made the combined hybris team a high-performing band of believers. * The Champagne QBR Story. (No names. You’ll understand.) * Bill’s monster quarter and the hybris sales kickoff callout — Steve’s version. * The SAP acquisition and what changed — and what didn’t. * Why Steve left to start WorkJam — the founding story and the problem he set out to solve. * The surprising overlap between frontline workforce operations and order management. * How AI is changing the daily experience of the frontline worker — not just the manager. * Final question: when the robots have taken over, where’s the party — and what are you ordering? Please share! These OG stories deserve to be heard! Email it, Slack it, send it to your group chat, whatever - Just f*****g share it! This week’s Cocktail: Blanco Tequila Martini The martini is the most argued-over drink in the canon — gin vs. vodka, wet vs. dry, stirred vs. shaken (don’t), olive vs. twist. Steve has added his own entry to the debate: do it with tequila. It works, and once you try it you’ll wonder why it isn’t more common. Blanco tequila has a clean, bright character that slots into the martini template surprisingly well — the agave brings an herbal lift that gin sometimes gets credit for, and the spirit-forward structure holds up. A few drops of saline open up the agave and add a dimension you can’t quite name but definitely notice. The lemon twist cuts through the richness at the end. Steve’s spec leans toward the freezer — no ice dilution, just a vermouth rinse and orange bitters, served ice cold from a frozen bottle. Brian riffed and went a different direction: blanco tequila, ancho liqueur, orange bitters, and chile-infused bitters for a spicier riff. Both approaches point at the same insight: tequila’s character is expressive enough to carry a spirit-forward drink. You just have to trust it. Cheers! Cocktail Spec: Blanco Tequila Martini 2.5 oz. — Blanco tequila (Fortaleza, Siete Leguas, or Olmeca Altos recommended) .5 oz. — Dry vermouth 1 dash — Orange bitters 2 drops — Saline solution (20% — a small pinch of fine sea salt works) Garnish — Lemon twist (express, swipe the rim, drop in — or a Castelvetrano olive for the savory crowd) Steps: Combine tequila and vermouth in a mixing glass with ice. Stir until very cold — approximately 30 rotations. Add saline if using. Strain into a chilled coupe or martini glass. Express the lemon twist over the top, swipe the rim, and use as garnish. Notes: The saline is the move. A small amount won’t make the drink taste salty — it will make it taste more like itself. Agave especially responds to it. Don’t skip it. Enjoy! Please subscribe! We want to be sure you make it to the next party! Cheers! As always, it’s great to have you here! If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, share, rate (it helps!), and let us know your thoughts. We love to hear from our listeners. Be well, drink well, and here is to good business! Cheers! - Brian & Bill Cocktails & Commerce™ is a wholly owned subsidiary of StrategyēM, LLC [https://www.strategyem.com/]. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit cocktailsand.substack.com [https://cocktailsand.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

C&C Pod: Rob Garf, Head of Strategy, Cordial

Bill and I have been looking forward to this one. Rob Garf [https://www.linkedin.com/in/rob-garf-224395/] joins us to mix up a great riff on his beloved Espresso Martini and dig into the transformation happening at the intersection of marketing technology, agentic systems, and customer experience. Rob is Head of Strategy at Cordial [https://cordial.com/], a cross-channel marketing platform that sits at the convergence of data, AI, and the activation layer. Cordial works with leading brands and retailers — Levi’s, Abercrombie, L.L.Bean, Boot Barn, and others — to orchestrate personalized customer experiences across marketing channels, and now sits squarely in the middle of what AI and agentic systems mean for the marketer’s day-to-day. Prior to Cordial, many of you will know Rob from his time at Salesforce and Demandware — including his role driving the Salesforce Shopping Index, one of the most-cited benchmarks in retail eCommerce. He has also done stints as an industry analyst, as an long-time advisor to NRF, and as a merchant in the early days of omnichannel at Lids, where he implemented one of the first buy-online-pickup-in-store programs. He has been at the center of this industry for a long time, and it shows. And yes — a good number of you have probably taken a “Garfie” with Rob at some point. We get behind that story as well. Once a rival, it’s been a tremendous joy to become friends with Rob over the years and now invite him on the show. So please pour yourself something to sip along with us and enjoy our interesting and delightful conversation with Rob. Cheers! Episode Chapters: * Welcome and a deep dive into the Night Moves cocktail — why Oloroso sherry is one of the most underused tools in cocktail building, and what it does to an espresso martini riff. * Hey Levi! Kai’s contract is up — Bill’s younger grandson Levi is stepping in! Rob explains what Cordial does and we’ll see how he does. Winner-Winner-Chicken-Dinner? * From warehouses to strategy: Rob’s journey through retail, omnichannel commerce, IBM, Demandware, Salesforce, and what brought him to Cordial. * What are marketers actually saying about generative AI — and why the consumer transformation happening underneath them is the real story. * From websites to marketplaces to answer engines: 25 years of commerce shifting off the retailer and onto someone else’s platform. * AI brain fry and what “process transformation” for marketers is up against. * Martech consolidation: cost, ease of use, and seamless activation, and simplification. * Answer engines as the new shopping mall: the platform charges the toll, not the consumer. What brands need to understand about “paying to play” in AI-mediated commerce. * How the Martech stack evolves in the agentic era — and why the convergence of data, intelligence, and activation is the real shift. * Agencies at an inflection point: an existential threat to billable hours, creative, and media buying. * The future of research and thought leadership: frameworks vs. answers, and why the six-month research report is already obsolete. * “The Garfie”: the backstory story. * Rob’s post-big-win cocktail order. Let’s not sweat subscribing… share! These stories and POV’s deserve to be heard! This week’s cocktail: Night Moves The espresso martini has had quite a run. It became the drink of the moment a few years ago and has stubbornly refused to leave. Which makes sense — coffee and a little sweetness in a coupe is a hard formula to argue with. But Bill has come up with something interesting here: taking the soul of the Espresso Martini and riffing it, adding more structure and less sweetness, and the result is a considerably more grown-up drink. The name is a Bob Seger reference [https://youtube.com/shorts/GjhcSU6V4-o?si=HHEalK1rPfdStDwI], which might age us a bit, but it fits. The Night Moves cocktail is dark and composed, yet as comfortable as an old pair of beat-up jeans. Coffee is still the lead, but it’s been given something to work with. The secret ingredient is a quarter ounce of Oloroso sherry — one of the most underused tools in mixology. Oloroso sherry is a fortified wine from Jerez in southern Spain, aged in contact with air, which gives it layers of dried fruit, walnut, and dark chocolate. It’s not sweet and it’s not sharp. In a coffee-forward drink it acts like seasoning — you don’t taste the sherry exactly, you just notice the drink has more dimension than the ingredients list might suggest. That’s the move. Brian used Palo Cartado which leans a bit more saline and minerality, but in a similar vein as Oloroso sherry. The rest of the build is well-considered: a good, clean vodka; Mr. Black coffee liqueur (drier and more coffee-forward than Kahlua, which matters); chocolate and orange bitters; and a few drops of saline solution to tie everything together. The orange peel expressed over the top lifts it at the end and keeps it from feeling heavy. An optional grating of dark chocolate on a microplane adds an aromatic, bitter finish. This is a nightcap that will keep you rolling as you make your Night Moves. Cheers! And in case you don’t quite remember the inspiration for this cocktail: Night Moves Cocktail Spec A sophisticated, low-sweetness riff on the espresso martini. Stirred, not shaken — served up in a small martini or Nick & Nora glass. 2 oz. — Vodka (Ketel One or other high quality vodka recommended) 0.5 oz.+ — Mr. Black coffee liqueur (a little over is encouraged) 0.25 oz. — Oloroso sherry 1 dash — Chocolate cocktail bitters 1 dash — Orange cocktail bitters A couple of drops — Saline solution (20% solution; a pinch of sea salt stirred in works fine) Garnish — Orange peel, expressed over the top Optional (not really optional) — Light dusting of grated dark chocolate via microplane Steps: Combine all ingredients in a mixing glass with ice and stir until well chilled. Strain into a small martini or Nick & Nora glass. Express an orange peel over the top and use it as garnish. Add a light dusting of grated dark chocolate if you have a microplane. If you don’t, find one. Notes: The sherry is the key. Oloroso adds walnut, dried fruit, and dark chocolate depth without sweetness — you won’t taste it directly, but you’ll notice the drink has considerably more dimension than it would without it. Sherry is genuinely one of the most overlooked cocktail ingredients there is. Enjoy! Hey, if you like this kind of cocktail and commerce chat, subscribe! You don’t want to miss the next party! Cheers! As always, it’s great to have you here! If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, share, rate (it helps!), and let us know your thoughts. We love to hear from our listeners. Be well, drink well, and here is to good business! Cheers! - Brian & Bill Cocktails & Commerce™ is a wholly owned subsidiary of StrategyēM, LLC [https://www.strategyem.com/]. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit cocktailsand.substack.com [https://cocktailsand.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

C&C Pod: Nitin Mangtani, EVP of Agentforce Commerce & Retail Cloud at Salesforce

This week Nitin Mangtani [https://www.linkedin.com/in/nitinmangtani/] joins Bill and I to mix up a delicious C&C bespoke mocktail and give us an update on Salesforce Commerce Cloud, their recent acquisition of Cimulate [https://cimulate.ai/], and share his point-of-view on agentic commerce, and what the rise of AI-driven agents means for the future of B2B and software as a whole. Nitin is Executive Vice President of Agentforce Commerce & Retail Cloud at Salesforce [https://www.salesforce.com/], one of the largest and most influential software companies on the planet. Nitin came to Salesforce by way of PredictSpring, a modern POS solution he founded and which Salesforce acquired in 2024. A long-time builder and leader in commerce, Nitin is in a unique position to talk about where agentic commerce and systems are heading - and the practical impacts that will have short-term as well. We’ve known Nitin for sometime and been looking forward to having him on the show. So pour yourself something to sip along with us and enjoy our great conversation with Nitin. Cheers! Episode Chapters: * Welcome and a deep dive into our bespoke mocktail with Dromme - what it is, what’s in it, and why it actually works. * Hey Kai! Nitin explains Salesforce in a way Bill’s nine-year-old grandson can understand. * From founder to EVP: Nitin’s path through commerce — PredictSpring, the Salesforce acquisition, and what drives his passion for commerce. * Salesforce’s acquisition of Cimulate : the thesis, the timing, and what a CommerceGPT brings into the Commerce Cloud fold. * Merchant control in the AI era: how brands use AI-driven discovery to tell their story, prioritize assortment, and drive campaigns. * The Salesforce Commerce Cloud strategic reset: what changed, what it means, and what to pay attention to. * Agentic commerce from the inside: what Salesforce customers are actually asking for, and where this sits on the priority list right now. * B2B on the verge. Is B2B about to leapfrog B2C in the agentic world? Procurement agents, selling agents, and the autonomous commerce thesis. * The SaaSpocalypse: if agents can orchestrate workflows, write software, and interact with systems directly — what happens to the traditional SaaS model? * Reading the platform market: Solutions coming up-market, slower replatforming cycles, and where Salesforce Commerce goes from here. * Looking to 2030: What does commerce look like, and what does that mean for the solutions market? * Nitin’s next mocktail order. Thanks for listening to C&C! Please subscribe so you don’t miss the next great conversation! This week’s mocktail: The Calm Before the Storm The no-and-low alcohol movement has been building for years, and at this point it’s no longer a trend - it’s a genuine shift in how a lot of mindful drinkers approach the glass. At C&C we love exploring NA, so when the opportunity came up to build an episode around a well-crafted mocktail, we wanted to do it right. Enter Dromme Calm [https://drinkdromme.com/products/calm/]. Dromme Calm is a functional Scandinavian-inspired zero-proof elixir built around a serious functional ingredient stack — adaptogens, nootropics, and anti-inflammatory botanicals. We are talking Ashwagandha for stress response, Lion’s Mane mushroom for anxiety and cognitive support, L-Theanine for calm focus without drowsiness, 5-HTP as a serotonin precursor, Lemon Balm and Valerian Root for nervous system support, and water-soluble Turmeric and Ginger for anti-inflammatory effect. There is also Magnesium Citrate and Hop Essence — which adds a slight bitterness reminiscent of a spirit’s edge, and which carries mild sedative properties of its own. This is not a glass of sparkling water with a lime wedge. This is a bottle of something that has been thought through. The name “The Calm Before the Storm” felt almost too perfect for a conversation about agentic commerce with someone sitting at the center of it. There is a kind of productive stillness in this moment — the feeling of standing just before something big arrives. The drink captures that. It’s grounding, clean, and surprisingly complex for something with no alcohol in it. The Dromme Calm carries the body, the coconut water softens and rounds it, the lime juice lifts it, and the agave balances the whole thing. The optional ginger adds a little bite if you want it — and if you swap in honey syrup instead of agave, you get a rounder, more floral sweetness that really opens up the botanical notes in the Dromme. If you are sober-curious, doing a dry stretch, or just want something interesting in your hand that is both delicious and brings on some relaxation — this is it. Cheers! The Calm Before the Storm Mocktail Spec 2 oz. - Dromme Calm [https://drinkdromme.com/products/calm/] zero-proof elixir 3 oz. - Coconut water (fresh or high-quality bottled) 3/4 oz. - Fresh lime juice (freshly squeezed) 1/2 oz. - Agave syrup (or honey syrup — see notes) Optional: 2–3 thin slices of fresh ginger Garnish: Lime wheel and a sprig of fresh mint Steps: If using ginger, muddle slices gently in the bottom of a shaker or glass. Add the Dromme Calm, coconut water, lime juice, and agave syrup to a shaker with ice. Shake well until chilled. Strain into a rocks glass over fresh ice. Garnish with lime wheel and fresh mint. Note: If using honey instead of agave: Make a honey syrup by combining honey and warm water at a 2:1 ratio (2 parts honey, 1 part water) and stirring until fully dissolved. Use the same volume as the agave syrup. The honey adds a rounder, floral sweetness that pairs beautifully with the herbal and botanical notes of the Dromme Calm. Enjoy! Please share! There is plenty of room for others at the cocktail party! Thank you! As always, it’s great to have you here! If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, share, rate (it helps!), and let us know your thoughts. We love to hear from our listeners. Be well, drink well, and here is to good business! Cheers! - Brian & Bill Cocktails & Commerce™ is a wholly owned subsidiary of StrategyēM, LLC [https://www.strategyem.com/]. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit cocktailsand.substack.com [https://cocktailsand.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]