Kim Jones and husband Brett Morson are the co-owners of Tropical Vibes, which sells apparel and products online that are inspired by the tropics. Recently, they have released their own five-year, aged dark rum. Here, Jones tells us a bit about herself and her business. For more information, go to tropicalvibes.com.
Tell me about Tropical Vibes.
Tropical Vibes is a lifestyle brand in that we are about all things tropically inspired. So, we do have apparel, items for the home and our most recent addition, of course, is our new Tropical Vibes Rum.
When did you first get into this?
We were actually living in South Florida about four years ago and thought we should get a side hustle because everybody was getting a side hustle back then. So, we started a travel agency. We named it Tropical Vibes Travel.
We created the hat and the shirt with the Tropical Vibes logo with the thought that we were going to be giving hats and shirts to all the legions of travelers that we were sending around the world to all these fabulous places.
As it turned out, we were terrible travel agents. We were really, really bad at it. [Laughs] But people loved the hats and the shirts, so we said, “Well, forget the travel agency business; we’re going into the apparel business.”
So, we pivoted and, of course, started with the apparel. Did really, really well there. And have just segued into the rum because we feel it’s a natural brand extension.
That’s how we got to where we are today.
Tell me a little bit about your rum.
The first rum that we have out now is a five-year, aged dark rum. We’re using a sugar cane juice base, which gives it a fantastic flavor. It’s almost more like maybe a whiskey as opposed to a traditional rum, because we’re not using that molasses base. So, it doesn’t have that heavy sweetness that a lot of off-the-shelf rums tend to have. What a lot of people associate with rum is that it’s very heavy and very sweet. Even though ours is five-year-aged in barrels, it does not have that sweetness.
It really has a fantastic flavor that you can just drink on the rocks, and it makes a great old fashioned. Great dark ‘n’ stormy. I think the only way I would not recommend drinking it is neat, because it really does need that little bit of chill for the flavor to really come out.
When did you introduce it?
We are really in our first month of rolling it out.
We’ve already had some incoming unsolicited orders from wholesalers in other parts of the country, which is really exciting. They like the brand, and so they’re excited to get it out to their customers.
We really hope people enjoy it. It’s intended to really just help people enjoy the spirit and energy of the tropics — wherever they are.
What did you do prior to starting this business?
I actually was in corporate sales. I used to sell employee health benefits to large companies. So, this is quite a different direction. My husband worked for 35 years with Publix in logistics.
So, neither of us really had a background in this, but we both knew that we had an entrepreneurial streak and just wanted to try our hand at something.
What do you like best about what you do?
The feedback that we get from customers. When we’re selling apparel and customers reach out and just tell us a happy story about: “Hey, I was on my way to XY and Z vacation destination and ordered a hat for everyone in the family.” And they send us family photos of everybody wearing Tropical Vibes hats, and everyone’s got big smiles.
We’re not curing disease or changing the world; we’re just trying to make the world a slightly happier place.
I think if we can just put a smile on a customer’s face, then we’ve succeeded.
How long have you been living in this area?
We moved here a little over a year ago.
What do you like best about living here?
It’s kind of funny. I would say the trees, the greenery. Coming from South Florida, where they’ve pretty much paved over every square inch, it’s so refreshing to see so many green spaces and areas that haven’t been developed. It really is beautiful.
I think maybe if you’ve lived here for a long time, you might take it for granted. If you come from somewhere else, it really does make it so much more people-friendly to have all this greenery.
And the beaches are beautiful here.
We absolutely love it.
You have an office at the link.
It’s absolutely terrific. It’s a great workspace and the building itself, of course, is beautiful but I think the collaboration and the opportunity to interact with other entrepreneurs who are at various stages in their businesses has been really invaluable.
Having spent, obviously, the time working from home as everyone did, it’s just really refreshing to come back to an office space where people are excited and doing interesting and creative work. I love being a part of it.
How do you like to spend your free time?
We pretty much take every Friday morning off and head out on the boat and do some fishing, which is really relaxing.
I grew up fishing. I grew up in Seattle, salmon-fishing a lot with my dad. I forgot how much I enjoyed it, having been away from it for so long.
And the waterways here are absolutely beautiful.
It’s a great way to spend a Friday morning.
