It could’ve been Johnny Eats. Or Johnny Advises. Or Johnny Builds. It just happened to be Johnny Drinks.
And now it’s worldwide.
Wayne residents John Sr. and John Jr. Rondi somehow caught lightning in a bottle one night as they prepared to have a guy’s night out with family. With four fateful words and a cell phone, their future had changed.
“Make me a drink,” John told his father. He did. He made him a Manhattan that night and recorded the process, along with them talking. John had recently downloaded TikTok to his phone, so he decided to post it. During dinner, he checked his phone. Their video had 100,000 views. By the time they got back in their car for the night, it was over a million. The next morning, it was three million.
Three weeks later, the world shut down and they had little to do, so they kept mixing, talking, and posting. John would give his son advice on how to do things, like how to tie a tie, or shine his shoes, or change the oil in his car. Life lessons from father to son, a relationship on display.
When the world opened back up, it was a different place for them.
“Suddenly we’re out in public and people start recognizing us for something we’d done in our basement, John Jr. says. “It was weird – ‘why do you want to take a picture with us?’. That’s when I knew that we had a serious opportunity to make it a business.”
“Tik Tok wants people to stay on their app. So, it’s less about the followers than the content. The algorithm will likely favor a new user and get the views built up quickly to encourage you to post more and stay on. It’s really about being consistent with what you’re posting. That’s how you build the success.”
Going viral is out of the control of a lot of people. “Maintaining that success is in learning what people like and always staying consistent with who you are. The lifespan of a content creator influencer is about a year,” says John Jr. “It becomes an ego trip, you’re suddenly treated like a celebrity. Long-term success comes from staying who you are and not giving in to that. Staying real and organic, being careful of what you’re putting out and what it is you’re showing, that’s in the curation of the content. You never want to lose sight of what you’re putting out there, just to hunt for bigger views.”
They come and go because they’re not thinking of it as a business, according to John Sr. “I have a new acronym that I use - the ABC’s: Appearance, Brand, and Communication. We have a standard of our appearance, and we’re not going to change that. That’s the brand, the optics of it. And what we communicate, the things that I say on the videos are important to me, in the giving back to the followers and the audience who have taken the time to click on the video.”
“I told him early on that this is outside my comfort zone,” notes John Sr. “Coming from a financial background, I always kept everything buttoned-up, never sharing any personal details of anything in my clients’ files. Now, I’m doing the opposite. I’m sharing everything. I built my own brand for 30 years in the mortgage business. Everything was tight, close to the vest, I kept the bar high for myself. But with a little bit of blind faith, I kept doing what John was asking me to do, and here we are, four and a half years later, still doing these things that I think bring value to the audience that engages with us. It’s the family dynamic. It’s real. He busts my chops, I bust his. It’s real.”
“I’m a father first. The responsibilities to the audience, to the business, come second. He’s my partner, but he’s my son first. That’s the dynamic, and in any family business, that’s probably the hardest part to manage.“
And that’s the crux of what they do. For Johnny Drinks, the mixology is the setting. It’s the background piece. And that’s what connects with viewers.
“Now, when young people approach me and ask me questions, I take it as an opportunity to tell them about things of value,” says John Sr. “It’s not about the cocktails that we make. It’s about the life lessons. That’s what we do.”
And those lessons are reaching millions. One TikTok video alone had almost 25 million views. And they have several hundred videos posted. John Jr. has added a John Rondi podcast, extending the brand beyond the Johnny Drinks videos. Even those little things – John Sr.’s signature ring tap, once an acknowledgement to his son to remember to pour with his right hand – have taken on mythic status. Recently, a follower approached them, and the first thing that the man did was “ring tap” his drink.
That success, and the five million followers they’ve connected with as they’ve officially become Tier 1 mega influencers, have taken them into a new level of celebrity. They even were a bit surprised when they went to dinner at a local restaurant and saw their Johnny Drinks brand bourbon behind the bar.
There are some celebrity collaborations with people like Kevin Hart and Guy Fieri, but they’re mostly just for fun. The first real big one that they had was with UFC CEO Dana White. The Johnnys were flown out to Vegas for their session with him. After their shoot, while they were touring White's otherworldly facility, Johnny Jr., who grapples in Jujitsu, got to have a friendly session with one of their champions. While they were there, White’s chef saw them in the kitchen and said “Hey – Johnny Drinks!”
These are things that don’t happen to most people. But the Johnny Drinks brand, and who these men are, have found themselves in far bigger rings than most of us will ever see.
But to the Rondi’s, the best collaborations are simply with their family.
The things the Johnny Drinks boys are most proud of are the times when people come up to them to tell them how much they’ve learned from them. It’s not about the drinks. It’s about their relationship. The drinks never come up. It’s about the value that they bring to them as people. As father and son. As a family. As John Sr. says, they’ve set a standard for their brand with a very high bar.
And that’s a bar we can all gather around.
To see more about Johnny Drinks, check out their Johnny Drinks website (johnnydrinks.com). And they’re on TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, and wherever you get your podcasts. Simply search Johnny Drinks. You’ll find them.
Life lessons from father to son, a relationship on display.
When you’re too comfortable, when you think you have everything figured out, that’s when you’re most vulnerable.
But to the Rondi’s, the best collaborations are simply with their family.