Before becoming a franchise owner of With A Twist, he largest mobile bartending service in the country, Audrey Mullins spent most of her life as a caregiver.
At 19, she had her first child and had an untraditional college journey as she’d take time off and adjust her class schedules to care for her father, who had renal failure. After his death, Mullins then had to take care of her mother.
She went on to have two other children with her husband, Dennis Mullins, who had a daughter as well. Now, she runs With A Twist Bartending with her three daughters— Audreana, Vannessa and Megan.
As of this April, Mullins was handed the reins to not only the Dallas area (which services Lake Highlands, East Dallas, Oak Cliff and Preston Hollow), but all of Texas for With A Twist Bartending operations. That puts her in the 31% of minority franchise owners and 5% of Black franchise owners.
Each region has 12 licensed bartenders and team leads to keep things in check when Mullins can’t physically be at an event. She and her teams set up everything and serve, but they don’t transport alcohol. That’s delivered separately.
“We deliver to your event, and I just made sure that my bartenders are trained and they know that if someone has too much to drink, we cut them off.” she says. “I’m real firm about that because I had a good friend of mine, just a year ago today, who got killed by a drunk driver.”
Each team lead is issued a credit card for other supplies they might need for their mobile bar. Mullins also notes her franchise receives 20 event leads a day requesting bartending services.
“I talked to my daughters and I said, ‘I know we can do this,’” Mullins says. “We talked about it, and then I went for it. And, personally, I thought this was really important for my daughters to see. You’ve always seen me be mom, now you get to see the business side of me.”
Audreana, 32, handles front end sales, Vanessa, 22 does social media and assists with new customer leads, Megan, 32, is responsible for all of HR and event staffing duties. Daniel, 19, helps out when not at college in the summer wherever needed.
As for Mullins, she gets the corporate accounts and the venues for the events.
It’s not just about getting drinks to people. Mullins says she believes in the importance of giving back, including to her friend’s golf tournament in San Antonio and 100 Black Men in Dallas.
“My friend, Carla Sizer, her son, Dane, was killed. So, this year I will go in when she has her golf tournament. Then I will go and we will donate our services to her and there’s a couple of more than I’m looking into.”
More details and services from With A Twist can be found on the website.