May 27, 2025
What if you could launch your brand, scale it to 8 figures in revenue, and land 32,000 retail doors — all without a traditional background in business?
In this episode of Scaling Emerging Beauty, Monique sits down with Brooks Powell, Founder and CEO of Cheers, a category-creating brand in the after-alcohol wellness space. Brooks shares how he turned a neuroscience research paper into a multimillion-dollar brand starting straight out of college, with no formal business training.
We cover everything from Cheers' explosive Shark Tank moment, surviving the iOS privacy changes that wrecked digital marketing, and strategically expanding into major retailers like Walmart, Walgreens, and Wegmans.
We’ll dive into:
✅ The surprising science behind Cheers and how it started
✅ How Cheers scaled fast with a small, scrappy team
✅ Lessons from Shark Tank — even without a deal
✅ How to navigate pricing architecture across retail channels
✅ Why hiring for attitude and problem-solving beats hiring for
experience
✅ How Cheers adapted when Facebook and Instagram ads changed
overnight
✅ Brooks’ advice for early-stage founders: go bigger, faster, and
learn as you go
If you’re building a consumer brand and dreaming of major growth, this episode is packed with hard-earned lessons you won’t want to miss!
Links:
📌 Connect with Brooks Powell on
LinkedIn
🔗 Monique Benoit on
Instagram
🔗 Monique Benoit on
LinkedIn
🔗 Scaling Emerging
Beauty on Instagram
🔗 Scaling Emerging Beauty
Website
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