Metaxa : The Family Behind the Brand

Zika Metaxa

writer

Zika Metaxa grew up in an internationally known family spirits business, founded by her ancestors in 1888. As a marketer, she traveled the world promoting the family spirit, as a member of the family business and then, for the multinational company that acquired the Metaxa brand.

After becoming a mom Zika left a career in marketing, advertising, and retail and turned her attention to more intimate, creative pursuits. She first penned a children’s book in her native Greek language. Her new book, an English language memoir, “Metaxa Stars: The Evolution of a Greek Spirit Within Generations,” shares stories and lessons growing up Metaxa. She is currently developing her third book.

Metaxastars.com

https://www.amazon.com/Metaxa-Stars-Evolution-Spirit-Generations-ebook/dp/B0BJCDHCSX

www.marlanasemenza.com

Audio : Ariza Music Productions

Transcription : Vision In Word

Marlana

Metaxa, the name is iconic. Founded in 1888, the spirits brand spanned generations as to the stories and lessons shared. Today, we had the honor of speaking with Zika, daughter, marketer and author, as she says a bit of what it was like growing up as part of the family behind the brand. Welcome, Zika.

Zika

Hello, very nice to see you. Hardly, I'm very happy to be here with you.

Marlana

So, you know, as I read your memoir, I thought there are a lot of different ways we could take this conversation. But what I'd like to do is I'd like to actually start with the women because I feel that in society, and also in certain cultures, that it's very difficult for women to find their way, you know, find their voice, all of these things, but you come from a long line of very strong women. And sometimes that strength was a good thing, and sometimes not such a good thing. But tell us a little bit about your mother and your grandmother, who you are named after.

Zika

Yes, thank you very much indeed. Basically, it all started of the woman of the family, my great grandmother, she was really, really a very dynamic personality. Now we are talking in the 88 is of course, that was a thinkable of woman to have to speak their mind at the time, especially in Greece, which I'll come to that later on. So, she was very dynamic she was working in. It was not a factory yet in the business, whatever business it was, at the time, it was at the very beginning. She raised her children, she had nine children single handedly with her husband, but she was in care of everything. And she even had a say in politics, and was able to issue a law. She was also a great philanthropist. She lived in a house, in the suburbs in Paris, airport, very well-known port in Greece. And every day she would have, she would give up free food in big plates for the people who did not have money to buy food for the poor. And there were queues and queues of people waiting for the food. Despina, that was her name, was giving out. So that was my great grandmother.

Then my grandmother Zika, whom I am named after, because this is the family tradition. We are named after the father's usually parents. She was also extremely dynamic. She had a very, very strong personality. People in at the time we had the factory so she was coming to the factory every day, people the factory, the employees were always almost scared of her because she was always walking around looking around poking her nose, everywhere, literally. And she has a big nose. And obviously she was not working with finances or the marketing's but she was taking care of the other house. Can I say this The other aspect of the business she was going around making sure the gardens work, yay. We had chicken at the time in that factory that Hans had laid the chickens. She was always around, she knew who was working were in one place. She was walking up and down all day. Like a surgeon that would say, so she was very, very dynamic.

Now my mother, Karina, she was less dynamic in the business area. Because she left my father to do that, as it was his parental business. She stepped aside. But she was very dynamic and that she grew up also single handedly without help three children, me and my two brothers. And she had her presence was let's say, low key. But she was dynamic in an invisible way. Always making sure her way, eventually, you know past

Marlana

and sometimes, you know, the quiet strength is usually under rated, and it's seeming like your mother had a lot of quiet strength.

Zika

That's true. I think it's very intelligent to have a quiet strength. I have tried a lot of times to imitate her but I have never succeeded because I'm very spontaneous. And I always speak out the my mind sometimes even faster than I should.

Marlana

But your grandmother and your mother didn't have a great relationship in the beginning.

Zika

Not at all. My grandmother was very, very difficult in her relationships. And the weird thing is that's why the book is about you know, patterns going on again and again through generations. She didn't have a good relationship or either with her in laws, and her husband's siblings. She never approved of my father's marriage, and never, because she wanted my father to marry someone from a wealthy family, which my mother was not. And she never, never accept the fact that he went on and did what his heart told him to do, without taking into consideration her words. So that was very unforgettable in her mind, she felt her son had betrayed her.

And now remember, bear in mind, that was in the 1960s. Still, in those days, and especially in Greece, it was a very big thing, who marries whom the parents had a tremendous say in it. And it was really answered, I'm not comfortable that my father went ahead and did what married the girl he loved, although his parents did not approve. So in that way, they had, they really did not have a very good relationship, not at all. But after the year, many, many years past, we were quite old, all of that. Towards the end, I would say over the life of my grandmother's life, the relationship did finally take a good turn. And at least towards the last, the last years of her life were peaceful in that manner.

Marlana

What was different about what you saw? Growing Up Female versus male in your family?

Zika

Oh, my God, different, like black and white. But not only my family, in Greece, in all families, and can I tell you, even nowadays, it still is the case. Not so prominent as it was those days. But still. So the thing is that in Greece, it's whenever the as soon as the wife becomes pregnant, everybody in the family except herself a praying for a boy, in order to take their families name, and a surname and the last name and to continue the business that was always in the mind all these years in the 1960s, the 70s, the 80s, the 90s onwards, to the point that in the villages in the provinces, this still applies today. Let's say for example, someone has four kids, and he has two boys, two girls, they asked him, someone will ask him how many children who you have, he will say, Oh, I have two children. And two daughters. Like the daughters are not even considered children. And even today, it's, they say, for example, oh, she did very well, for a girl she became a lawyer, or a doctor still may think it's something very major that a girl accomplished, to finish his studies, and to become a doctor or a lawyer or politician.

So, that was very, very much the case in my family. And since I was the first grandchild born into the family, from I mean, the first grandchild to my grandfather and my grandmother, the fact that it was a doctor was very disappointing to them, they will expect to the first grandchild to be a boy. So, it was a quiet event when I was born. When my brother, my first brother, and dress was born four years later, now was a huge event. I mean, they didn't have the time. I think there's fireworks if they would have a little mouth. Yes. And excuse my English again. But it's not my native language. That's why I have to think sometime.

Marlana

Now, you're doing fantastic. And it's actually very engaging to listen to what you know; your book talks a lot about family patterns and things like that. What patterns do you hope to continue, and which ones do you hope to break?

Zika

Now this is very difficult, this is really challenging for me, because the patterns I'm trying to break, I'm being completely honest here. I have to fight to break because subconsciously, I repeat them every day with my exam. And I have to make a very strong fault and like restart and say, now you're being your mother, you're being your grandmother, you're being your father, you're saying exactly the same things. Sometimes I even catch myself doing the same. You know, not remarks, figures and how do you say expressions on my face like my mind, I roll their eyes I got all these things. I hated; I do the more.

When, for example, my son tells me oh my god, you sound like grandma. Yes, I do. And then I try to do restart and talking with friends, I have realized that all of us more or less do the same thing. And this is the balance and the difficulty to try and break this circle because I feel I feel this intuitively and in my heart that if we can break the circle, it will not be repeated also after us.

Marlana

Right? Which patterns do you hope to continue? Because there has to be some wonderful things that you remember as well.

Zika

Yes, I hope to continue being generous in the heart, and kind, and above all, human and decent person with a low profile, not arrogant, or snobbish, or all the opposite.

Marlana

So, what's your favorite family story?

Zika

My favorite family story, let me see, because there was so many, definitely it was from during the World War Two, when the Germans were here, and they were raised in Greece, my grandmother Zika, trying so hard to obtain food for her children, everything about this. And it was so difficult to find a piece of bread. If they found an egg, it was a luxury, they had to exchange things in order to get food. And she was telling me how she was running from one corner to the other, trying to find a piece of bread or some not even vegetables, just like maybe one green leaf or something, while the Germans were raiding the city with bullets, basically, she was running out amongst the bullets, while the food hidden in her coat or in her dress, to go and feed her sons, this will may have stayed, it has stayed with me, whenever I go grocery shopping, or whatever, and I buy something for the house, I always think of this.

I'm always grateful of what we have now, of all the years that we've been through the generations before me for generations to come, take for granted, things like not so I get all the groceries, or having a good life. That's one of those things I really remember. And

Marlana

and, you know, what's so interesting too, is as your grandmother is trying to navigate the streets and go past bullets and things like that, the men in your family, we're actually still making this liquor.

Zika

they were trying to make it not to present it. The liquor it was to, let's say, downsize the whole story, because the Germans at the time knew that this lecture was happening faster, and definitely wanted to obtain the rest of the team. So, my grandfather, at the time, tried very, very hard and he managed not to give the exact recipe because they really pushed him to the rest of the team. They wanted to go and do the identical thing in Germany or whatever. But they manage the men in the family managed to keep it as a secret. One way of cheating the Germans and till the end of their career. This recipe was a secret recipe. Only thing you know, and it went from mouth to mouth from man to man. My grandmother didn't know the secret person, but she was a woman.

Marlana

Yeah. Did you ever kNwo,

Zika

No.

Marlana

That's funny. And I remember reading in the book too. It was actually pretty brilliant, what they did with the brass spec.

Zika

Yes, because at the time they had it was in barrels, it was still in barrels that they didn't have time.

Marlana

Do you have to bottle a lot of bottles?

Zika

Just a few bottles. And mostly it was from barrels and they would open them a little tap, let's say there was a tap around staff and people would either go with empty bottles of their own if for example, water bottles or something else fill it in, because this was the war. All they would the ones who had some money to buy a bottle would buy a bottle. So when the Germans but they knew my ancestors knew that this brown stack was not very good for the product because it sort of ruins the taste and the quality. But at the time, they didn't have either the means or the you know that the people and the time to concentrate and make it as they should, which they did after the war. So when the Germans came demand I'm going to obtain the recipe of the product. Listen, of course, come in, we'll welcome you, we'll give you a drink, try this product before we give you the recipe. And they made sure they gave them the product from the tap the bronze tap, which was not good also in taste.

So, the German method was a color now somebody would start drinking, you spit it out. This is all stuff. Why are people talking about this stuff? This is disgusting. So, he thought that people were just drinking it or buying it, obtaining it because they were desperate. It was the wall. And they thought, you know, it's better than nothing, we can have some alcohol. So, he totally took it out of his mind. And he said to everybody, all his other followers and German friends or whatever soldiers, that this is just a rumor. It's not at all a good product, this product is awful. We don't need to spend another moment on this project. And then as they say, in the book, little did they know that many years later, it was exporting this product from Greece to Germany. And actually Germany was one of the first countries in exports in Metaxa that they drank lots of it, they loved it, they still do.

Marlana

So funny. You talk about that. You know, this was a very male dominated business, this family business. So did you have difficulty carving out a path for yourself within the business?

Zika

Yes, I had a lot of difficult days. And I think it has still stayed with me all these years, I have been always trying to prove that I am good enough, business wise that I can do it like a man. And I think we have this has stayed with me and it's not a good, not something I'm proud of, I'm trying to fix it to make it better. But after all these years struggling to prove that you know, as a girl, as a woman, I can also do it. I can handle the liquor, I can sell the liquor, I can market the liquor. It was quiet, they never took me seriously, especially in the beginning.

Marlana

You know, which is funny to me, because when the business was eventually sold, you are part of the sale. And that was you had to have some work?

Zika

Yes, that was something I chose to be, but they thought, you know, the people who bought the company at the time, okay, they didn't think I would last, let's say, okay, she will stay for a month or two. And they were extra suspicious. They thought I was maybe staying there in order to I don't know, find out their secrets or something which was not at all the case, of course, I decided to stay on because I thought and it was eventually an immense lesson for me to work for a multinational company. It was totally a different approach, an extremely professional approach. Plus, the company had a big brand of products except the brand day they had bought because they had whiskies they had liquors, which was very challenging. They everything all the marketing was restricted from the beginning. So, there were a lot of briefing and advertising agencies, I loved all that. I learned so much in marketing, which was like having a master's degree in marketing. So much. They worked very hard on all hours, not like obviously we were working on so many hours as a family and on a different level. But I think after the first, let's say six, seven months near a year that they realized that I'm okay. Okay, I'm not the enemy.

Marlana

Did you find it difficult when the company was purchased, to kind of climb out from the family name? Because I mean, you still were a Metaxa?

Zika

Yes. Yes, I found it difficult. I think it was more. I understood that completely the reasons the company was sold at the time, the timing, everything. And I think it was more disappointing for my brothers and dress manglers as they were much younger than me they didn't have the opportunity to start working in the company or not, but they were I mean, they were teenagers at the time, almost finishing school, my brother and dress and they always thought, of course, being brought up in this male orientated company that they were the successors that would be one day the continuous I mean, since the day they were born. This was what they were. Everybody was telling them in the family. So, I think for the boys, it was more disappointing. For me as I was a bit l was l Jerell older, I realized the way my ankle my father explained it to me the business aspect of the timing, I realized it's a good time. And of course, it hurts also emotionally.

I thought it was an opportunity for me, again, to prove myself and to work hard. And which you did, it did actually work out like that it didn't turn out like that. In the end, after the years I spent them. It was appreciated. And by that time, and because the people who work for my work were I think only one was great, all the other will burn foreigners. They didn't have this conception about women, at least like we had it in Greece. So it was more normal to go and to grow in this environment, business wise. And in the end, they totally accepted me.

Marlana

Yeah, tell everybody just a little bit about what you did.

Zika

Okay, I was a brand manager, and I was working in marketing for a series of products I had. I had gin, I had a whiskey, I didn't have them, but acts of brandy, I had liquors of vodka, and, and another two different liquors, six or seven brands. So I was like a brand manager for these six or seven brands. So I was responsible for making advertising campaigns briefing, the advertising agencies, making the prices talking to the salespeople, making sure the products were in the markets, markets, and not only the supermarkets, but also we had to go to raise the BBs and see that they were the night. And the night bars also in the nightlife, which is very intense in Greece. Has only been cut down a little bit due to the COVID, but always had a very intense lifestyle.

Marlana

I think it’s worth noting that these were not small brands that you were…

Zika

well those were very well known brands. You know, there were well known also all over the world, they were not small, I think only there was one of the liquids, which was just starting, it was in a category called naps like digestive and they had just started the time appearing something new. But other than that, yes, they were very, very well known. And there was a lot of work. And in order to do them, the prices, the placement, the advertising, the marketing, the going around, making sure it was everywhere. The below and above the line, as they called it, it was the promotions, either the promotions, in the black bars are in the supermarkets, or the classical ones, which were in magazines at the time on TV, billboards, that kind so we had both advertisements in the classic way we knew it and doing lots of promotions and PR, it was a very, very busy time.

Marlana

Not for a woman. You know, in your book, you say, like how brandy matures over time in a barrel. I feel like I've been maturing in a barrel for my entire life. If I were to be a five star brandy, and if I were to recommend how you can become one too here are five major attributes to develop in yourself. I'd like to go through these five and just get your thoughts on them. Of course, the first one is to be original, which thought on that

Zika

you have to be original. Because obviously to speak your mind like I can't stop speaking, and to be who you are for yourself, not to be someone in order for the others to like you. I have also written about the likes and the likes we put on the social media. Everybody's trying, trying so hard nowadays, to make an image to create an image that I am even if it's not what they really are. If we could just take out the image you know more you're a photographer, and be what we really are within like you do it with your bring them inside out because you see through their eyes, something like that I meant to be original and to have values of course.

Marlana

Second one is Be brave.

zika

Oh my God, be brave. I cannot be brave without be brave because some we always have second thoughts and the second thoughts always keep us back and the same happens either it's in our personal lives or as either it's in our business lives. We always screen everything We overthink, we tend to overthink, I also do the same I'm not different. Should I do this? Should I do that now would this be we tried, we make a whole, let's say quote unquote business plan in our mind, before we go ahead with something which we deeply inside as we know what we want. So be brave. I mean, be brave and do what you really want without overthinking. But of course, think a little bit because you can, you know, just run off the cliff if that's what you want. But be brave and think that you can make it and then you will make it.

Marlana

Third one is be innovative and proactive.

Zika

I'll start with that proactive because this is something I found out in mind as a business career that it's always better to be proactive in life and in business mainly. Or as I would say, I would say simply better safe than sorry, which is one of the things I really liked. So be proactive, with whatever experience each one has. Because obviously, the older you become, the more experience you have, for example, my father has so much experience, he doesn't need to be proactive, he becomes automatically proactive. I am getting. So that's what I meant being proactive. And original is like not to try to imitate everybody else. To Be your own true colors. It sounds a bit cliche, but to be what you fail.

Marlana

Fourth one is find the fruit. What does that mean, by the

Zika

fruit by the fruit, I mean, the lessons, so to speak, and within the family, because we always keep out that started. As a father habit, we always try to seek advice for relationships in our five families. Namely, this is on a personal level, not on the business level, we try to find that vise from others, to read books to maybe go into therapy or talk or search. And maybe the lessons or the fruits, as I call them are within our family, maybe our family, our parents, our siblings or siblings can quote unquote, cultures. But the thing is, we tend not to want to listen to our family, I was the first one who did that. We tend to reject what they say and to think it's totally wrong. And because we think as teenagers and then a bit older, also, we still think that our families want something different for us men, we are parents, but in the end we all want they want the same thing because they mostly, most of them, at least love us. And they want our goods so not try to search the roads on other trees, search them in the family tree.

Marlana

Love that. Unless one is decluttering your mind.

Zika

No, yes, because I was cluttered like, we have so many thoughts. This is something I read somewhere. And I'm quoting it that our brain, sometimes it's so busy that it's like it has many, many monkeys jumping from one tree to the other from one tree to the other. And all these monkeys are our thoughts, we know we are doing something and we are thinking something else all the time. And nowadays, everybody's doing it because of the internet, the social media or the applications, so many thoughts. And in the end, first of all, we exhaust ourselves. And basically we lose our orientation, our focus to what is important to do, because for example, we start one thing Oh, I have to do this, we go to the other thing. We do this we do that, and our mind is Clutter. That's what I mean I'm clutter.

Marlana

You know, you have so many wonderful stories and whatnot in in your book and we'll tell people in a little bit how to get it. But at the end of the day, when people hear the name Metaxa What do you hope that they think and feel?

Zika

I hope that they continue to think and feel what my ancestors built so long ago, me being the fourth generation very nice product liquid, a brand z which represents Greek because it's of Greek origin, it's made it has been and still is made and produced in Greece. And it is its own category. Let's say it's not and that's why we could not call it cognac because cognac or the liquor the spirits that are made in cognac in France, way back they used to call it a corner here in Greece so it's something different and I would really like people to remember how it started and how it still is a beautiful product. Clear, nice day small end representing Greece. It's synonymous of Greece,

Marlana

Which sounds like something with you and your family? Nice tasteful representing Greece?

Zika

Oh, yes. I hope we continue, then the next generations to still do that.

Marlana

And with that Zika I just have four final questions for you. The first one is, we're talking about fruits earlier, what's the best piece of advice you're ever given?

Zika

Yes, I think it was remind mentoring business, Dennis will always told me and taught me how to prioritize basically in the business, but then in life. And I would like mentioning him because he passed away a few months ago, very young, he would always prioritize, he had a big office, which a desk, which was always, you know, it could have been full of papers. And the only thing he had was a small posted with the three priorities. He said, If of the day, if your priorities cannot fit into this tiny, little posted paper, then you're not a good manager, you're not you cannot delegate, if you start picking up one paper, taking the other going into folders, you miss all your focus, prioritize. And whenever I do that, I find out I'm much more efficient in whatever I do, either whether it's business, or sometimes it's on a personal basis, there were so many things that you and you have to think simultaneously. Sometimes you have to take a decision, the same moment, but two different things, you have to think what is more important now, this or that. So for me, prioritizing is the main lesson I was taught, and I still live by.

Marlana

I might have to try that. Share with us one thing on your bucket list.

Zika

My bucket list? Okay. My bucket list is to overcome my fear of heights. I have increasingly very big fear of heights. And my son keeps challenging me, but I never accept the challenges. So maybe one day I will die. So you're on your own.

Marlana

Yeah. So when the toy companies finally get around to making an action figure of you, what two accessories will it come with?

Zika

Okay, I always carry around with me a book, something I'm reading a pen or two, one or two pens. And nowadays, either a bad or a laptop, or whatever, depending if I'm traveling or not. So that would be it. Something to scribble on, whether it's a paper or it's something electronic, and a few, a couple of pens.

Marlana

And how do people find you and also find your book?

Zika

Okay, my book Metaxa Stars is on Amazon, Amazon US, amazon.com, Amazon Deutsche, French. And I'm on the social media on the Metaxa Stars, on Facebook as Metaxa Stars and on Instagram as Metaxa Stars also.

Marlana

Love it. Thank you so very much for being here. And I know I almost went out and bought some Metaxa because it's one of the things that I have never tried, but I'm gonna have to.

Zika

do that, one from Greece because it's so far away. Otherwise I would send you

Marlana

off to work on that.

Zika

Okay, thank you so much. Lovely talking to you.

Marlana

Thank you so much.

Zika

You too. Thank you. Have a nice day.