Podcasts about because jay

So you're in for a real treat if you're thinking about maybe becoming a TEDx speaker Because Jay was one of the founding members of building the TED talks down in Florida.   She's gonna talk about some dues and don'ts On how you can successfully become a TedX speaker, and this is perfect for anybody who is looking to take a first step down that road.  

On this episode of the Post Podcast Hays Arts Council executive director, Brenda Meder shares information about the 2022 Hays Spring Art Walk.   Transcript: EDITORS NOTE: Transcripts are provided by an automated service and are not verified for accuracy.   James Bell  The Hays Spring Art Walk is on the calendar for later this month and there's going to be a lot going on. Hays Arts Council Executive Director Brenda Meder stops by to share with us the details on this episode of the Post Podcast.   Brenda Meder  The Smoky Hill art exhibition is in its 53rd year, and it always opens as the anchor of the spring Artwalk. So that's an amazing day because our Smokies pretty spectacular. And it's going to be pretty spectacular again this year. And last year having moved the spring Artwalk with the the kind of the the chaos of scheduling that happened during the pandemic. We put it on a Saturday, there's a lengthy audience, but we found out that a lot of people really really enjoyed the more leisurely pace they enjoyed, they had more time to see everything including going down to the college, they enjoyed being able to also patronize and frequent the retail establishments, the restaurants, coffee shops and breweries in downtown Hayes. And so it's like we're gonna we're gonna give that a shot again, and let people just really relish and enjoy everything that is about you know, arts culture in our downtown over the course of that day. And that is on Saturday, April the 30th from 10am to 4pm. So a week from this Saturday, Saturday, April the 30th. And there is just a wealth of everything in addition to the to the Smoky Hill exhibition, which is the state's oldest juried Fine Art competitive. I think I counted I probably am missing some, but there are at least two MFA thesis exhibitions big important shows, you know, with wonderful bodies of rich contemporary artwork, but I mean, they put a lot on the line when these masters students are doing their MFA show. That's a big deal. And they bring out they bring out all the stops, and both crystal Hammerschmidt and Tanner Hoffman will be having their crystals it'll be down at the moss Lawrence gallery, Tanner's will be at our annex. And I think I counted four or five BFA exhibitions. So students who are finishing their their undergrad, their bachelor of fine arts programs, they, the visual artists, they need to mount exhibitions, or at least should for fulfilling all their requirements. And between some places on campus, both the Taylor Gallery and the Robbins center at the public library. And I think another couple of places, I think there's at least four if not five, BFA exhibitions, and then there's also just a variety of community artists and professional artists, and photography and programs that allow organizations like options, Big Brothers, Big Sisters and Janis campaign, those three important community organizations will be having features out that are, you know, arts and culture based, like Big Brothers Big Sisters is going to do a display of creative things that have been done by these collaborative partnerships. So to bring some awareness to get people excited to see what kind of things it is that people engage in, and quite frankly, just a great showcase for some of the great creative fun things that some of these pairings have done together. And there's, for instance, in the Chestnut Street building, which is where they're housed out of. And so you've got a little bit of everything that goes from North Main, the style stand center, which is where Janice campaign is located all the way to seventh in main Dallas County Historical Society, which is hosting a wonderful two photography exhibits one of them, one that Dr. Laura Wilson from Sternberg Museum is doing with some sort of abstracted photography that has to do with the natural world, and various scientific components that they're working with out there. But it's creating art out of these very unique, almost micro views of interesting things. So that's going to be fascinating. And a whole bunch in between including defiance brewery has been really wanting to get on the art walks for a while. And so they are going to be hosting a body of work that we still have from Gordon Sherman, with some frank nickels pieces in there. So anybody just going there, as a matter of course on Saturday will see things in there. But other folks may just want to migrate down that way. Because again, you've got six hours on Saturday. I do want to remind everyone that I mentioned the campus exhibitions, they are just 10am to 2pm. But otherwise, everything else is 10 to four, we've got a new art car that's going to be over at the Pavilion. I'm so excited. It's called spellbound and a gentleman who just moved to Hoisington from Trinidad, Colorado, an incredible artist, but also an art car enthusiast. He's organized tons of them all over the country. He has a couple of them. And this one is covered in in fabulous artwork and a gazillion scrabble tiles in phrases and words and quotes and statements. There's places on the cars where people can do their own, you know, make their own words and phrases and contribute to you know, with the Scrabble tiles, but it's covered. It's awesome. And that will be over there as will be a ceramic show and sale from Fort Hays State students that was very popular last spring over at the Pavilion and John makings from Great Bend will be back with his handcrafted drums. So we'll have three interactive drum circles at 11am 1pm and 2pm. There in the pavilion, and then another student coming from the performing arts, Danny Zhang will be having sort of his graduating undergraduate special, or I don't know if this is his masters, but his special jazz concert showcase performance. That'll be at three with Brad Dawson, Josh Duran and Spencer wheat corn, so no slouches there. And so that'll just be a wonderful free concert at three. And speaking of concerts on Friday night, we have our opening events at the downtown pavilion will be the Fort Hays jazz band spring outdoor concert, and it will be the final time that the jazz bands will be under the direction of Brad Dawson. He's still here still going to be doing music, but he will be conducting the jazz bands as the director for the last time in this wonderful open air concert at the Pavilion at seven o'clock on Friday night the 29th. The same night that the Encore series has their final program of the season. And of Green Gables the ballet, of course, there are tickets that you need to purchase for that. But I thought it was exciting that on that, you know pre Artwalk nights sort of the pre event, we've got these two amazing performing arts events. And this information that I've just shared is not on our website yet it will be on our website this weekend. And it's just a nice eight and a half by 11 sheet of information, easy to print out. So be watching for us on Facebook and our website because this will be available to you for the entire week before the Artwalk happens. So you can plan your attack and not miss a thing. But it's going to be a really, really amazing event. The Smoky Hill itself will run through June 4. So if you do have to miss the Artwalk weekend, still take time to come and see the smoke because there will be our amazing artwork there in so many different styles, genres and sizes from artists all throughout Kansas. And we will be dispensing $3,000 in cash awards. Don't know yet who's getting those. But that's something that'll happen right before we open. So a lot going a lot going on there. Good event.   James Bell  Yeah, excited for that. But that's just a fraction of what you got going on here because it's this time of year, the kiddos wrapping up their school year and I know you specifically especially love to be involved in   Brenda Meder  some stuff. We love working with the schools and getting involved with the kids in the schools. The schools love it. We try to bring things to them as often as possible. Just some of the things like today is high school art day. So we know there's some people out there that love seeing that and there's a few people who do go down and traipse around gross Coliseum. That's where all these I think there's something like 64 high schools represented I think I saw on Fort Hays website. This is Fort Hays, our high school art day. So it's not a haze Arts Council event. But we will have hundreds of students who will be visiting the Hayes Art Center to view our current exhibition for which it's the closing day of the Fort Hays State University departmental showcase faculty and graduate and undergraduate students that we've got there. So we'll be hosting tons of them today. Tomorrow, I'll be hosting about 1000 Kids in beach MIT for an outreach that we are doing with the Encore series for fourth and fifth grade students from 12 different elementary schools in our area. And then on Sunday, the day after the Artwalk. We have our big creative writing award ceremony. invitations have gone to the schools hopefully they've come on with winning students, families to know about that. Just a reminder, I've because I think there's almost 100 students from kindergarten through seniors in high school in both pose and poetry. In fact, I know your wife was one of the judges for us again this year. The English department is so kind and generous with their time to serve as the judging panel. And because it's 13 grades of you know, three to four places because we do a lot of honorable mentions in both prose and poetry. So about 100 young people will be honored and recognize so about 300 guests in the ballroom on Sunday afternoon for that. And then from Sunday, May 1 all the way through the end of the week, we have a residency with Che and Leslie Katie laughing matters that amazing, wonderful duo. In fact, on Thursday night, may the fifth Anyone is welcome to come to the Hayes Public Library at 630. Because Jay unless they will be doing their public showcase. We want to make sure everybody can see them, even if it's adult soup aren't part of the school systems because there's nothing better and more entertaining, and more professionally well done than Jay and Leslie Katie's laughing matters performance and famous figures finals are going to be on Friday May the sixth in the Beechman Performing Arts Center. So that kind of overlaps during the week that we've got these residencies with J and Leslie Katie. I also want to remind people that are wondering about our summer classes, we will be having our summer class program again. And we are working on getting things arranged. We know we'll have theater classes we know we're going to have classes in two and three dimensional art. We'll have a stained glass class again, things are looking good for another one of the Sternberg outreaches with those critters classes that we have. But those classes will not be ready for for public review and enrollment until probably the middle of that first week in May. It takes us a long time to get those together because all our teachers who are amazing people fit us into their schedules, they value this, they want to do it right. But they have a lot of items they have to check. So it will be the middle of that first week in May before you will find this information on our website, or announced through our Facebook page. But yeah, so just tons of stuff. Oh, and then I just want to give them a plug. Finishing the weekend, I talked about the performing arts that kicks off on Friday the 29th. And then Saturday, the Artwalk itself Sunday, not only will there be the creative writing award ceremony, late that afternoon DSM Wk is inviting to the public to their event with Jay and Leslie Katie, we're helping to serve some of their specific clients and constituents Sunday night at 730. Again, free because of their sponsorship support, the amazing Hayes Symphony Orchestra will be having their final concert of the season at 730 in beach, MIT. So this amazing, wonderful rich community has no shortage of different areas in the Visual Performing and literary arts for people to be engaged from the youngest of children, through the most senior of citizens, and throughout the community on campus. And I just want to remind everybody to keep your eyes open for that, again, if you follow us on, on Facebook, the Hayes Arts Council, we try to share as much as we can for not only our events, but events that happen for other elements of the community as well. So be watching and looking for that and definitely come out. It's all free on Saturday, April, the 30th 10am to 4pm to just enjoy the best and the most exciting that our community has to offer in the most wonderful environment possible.   James Bell  Absolutely. You know what else? If you want to find out more, I always like to talk about this, you got your website,   Brenda Meder  we do. And there's a lot of stuff on our website, even exhibitions that close, but you just want to sit around and look at artists, you got nothing else going on. That's up there. The famous figures videos from last year still there, they'll be there till we get this year's up. And in fact, it gives me a chance to give a plug to Tiger media network is going to film everything for us this year. So even though we get to go back to a live competition on stage and beat Schmidt on Friday, May the sixth people will be able to watch those videos, all the videos of them after the event on our website. It'll take us a little while to get them up there. But yeah, there's so much on our website, the exhibition that's up now if you don't get in since it closes today, every single piece and every artist that's featured in there is up on our website. There is information on those people so that you can really understand where they're coming from their backgrounds and their views as they make their art and yeah, a lot of stuff on our website. And it you know, I'm always afraid I'm not getting as much up there but it's already full so what the heck

Do you want to know what lies ahead for your fantasy football players?! Because Jay is back with another Fantasy Future Session! In this episode, he gives you the break down on a few players that you might wanna move away from if their value spikes again!Follow us on Instagram and TwitterDon't go hungry subscribe to our podcast on #Spotify, #ApplePodcast, or #Stitcher.Corey Davis David Montgomery #NFL #fantasyfootball #waiverwire #bitesize #fantasy #football

The Storm Skiing Podcast #12 | Download this episode on iTunes, Google Podcasts, Stitcher,TuneIn, and Pocket Casts | Read the full overview at skiing.substack.com.Who: Jay Scambio, President and General Manager of Loon Mountain, New HampshireWhy I interviewed him: Because in a state brimming with big, complete ski areas, Loon finds a way to stand out. It does this partially via massive ongoing investment and partially via terrific location and partially via its home in the massive Boyne portfolio, which in turn plants it among the half dozen Northeast mountains on the Ikon Pass. In the big, tough, cold White Mountains, Loon is an oasis: well-groomed, well-covered, and well-run, not so big and tough that it overwhelms and not so small or gentle that it’s boring. Finding and maintaining such a well-defined identity amidst the constellation of outstanding New Hampshire ski areas is a trick that Loon has been nailing for decades, and I wanted to get a better understanding of how they do it. The White Mountains heaving in the distance off the slopes of Loon.What we talked about: How Loon worked with Boyne to prioritize and develop its 2030 plan; why West Basin (anchored by the Governor Adams Lodge), will be the first area redeveloped; how Loon is looking west to Big Sky to inform how they can reconfigure that jumble of buildings into a more coherent, experiential whole; a deep, deep dive on the Kancamagus eight-pack, which will be the first such lift on the East Coast, including: tech and specs, its Inspector Gadget arsenal of zippity-do-dah gizmos, the number of chairs and how they’ll be allocated and stored, why the chairs have RFID tags, its footprint on the mountain and why they didn’t extend the terminal higher, expected groundbreaking and ribbon-cutting dates, how it differs from its cousin Ramcharger 8 on the slopes of Big Sky, whether higher capacity will equal overcrowding, how it may take pressure off the gondola, the thing may as well be an amusement park ride, and what might happen to the current Kancamagus Express Quad, which is in perfectly good working order; the wildly varying cultures of Loon’s ski pods; what kinds of upgrades we may see to the gondola and the Lincoln and North Peak Express Quads; don’t worry kids, the J.E. Henry Railroad may be older than your grandpa’s joke book, but it isn’t going anywhere; how the mountain maintains a steam locomotive that was made in 1934 and that you can’t just buy parts for on Amazon; potential trail expansions on North and South Peaks; where we might see glades thinned (but not anytime soon); the possibility of a ski link to and from South Peak; potential facility upgrades at the Summit Cafe, Camp III, and Pemigewasset Base Camp; why it may be a challenge to add more parking to South Peak; upgrading what is already a beastly snowmaking system; the two Loon trails that don’t have snowmaking and why one of them may stay that way; “Hey man, do you really need a fork that you’re gonna use once and then throw in the Dumpster to sit for the next 10,000 years?” and other ways Loon and all of Boyne are aiming for a zero net carbon footprint; how much less energy modern snowcats and snowguns use than their predecessors from just a dozen or so years ago; Boyne’s zippy RFID tech and where it can be used besides lift gates; why terrain parks are so important and so difficult to do right; and how to keep them fresh so the teenage shredders don’t call you out their socials Brah.This jumble of West Basin buildings will likely give way to a more deliberately planned village-esque experience, anchored by the East’s first eight-passenger chairlift, in Loon’s 2030 plan.Question I wish I’d asked: I’d liked to have discussed a bit more explicitly the choice to swap out Kancamagus before updating the gondola, as the latter seems more backup-prone to me, but Jay implied all of the answers, and the plan to anchor a reimagining of the whole West Basin area with a new signature lift and hopefully take some pressure of the gondy in that way makes a lot of sense. Why I thought that now was a good time for this interview: Because Loon 2030. Because Jay is a young guy who’s only been head of the operation for a bit over two years, which means he is in a very good position to see this plan through and probably very hungry to do so. Because when Oktuplefest comes to the Northeast, you swing by the party to see what’s making all the noise. And because frankly I wanted to hear firsthand from the guy who knows the mountain better than anyone the exact what, when, why, where and how of Loon’s extensive proposed upgrades to lifts, lodges, snowmaking, trails, and other infrastructure. Most of us already knew about Oktuplefest because the plans were made public in Forest Service documentation months ago, but most of the rest of it was kept in Boyne’s locked briefcase until recently, and I’m assuming that, like me, you wanted as much color as possible for how the broad 10-year plan would be applied to the mountain where you’ll actually be skiing.Right now, skiers travel between Loon and South Peaks on the Tote Road Quad. A ski connection between the peaks, while not imminent, is possible.Why you should go there: First of all because it’s easy to access, practically high-fiving I-93 and just south of the pinch point where the highway collapses to one lane through Franconia Notch. But also because it’s frankly just a really terrific mountain with long uninterrupted fall lines and a nice mix of terrain along the green-to-blue-to-black spectrum that is well designed to minimize trail overlap and let you open it up on the descent. While this isn’t the place you go to scare yourself stupid, it is one of the best intermediate mountains in New England. As we discuss in the interview, Jay is a parks guy, and his influence is clear in the extensive terrain turned over for that use. The lifts, while in need of the coming capacity upgrades, are in excellent shape. With little tree islands scattered about and long tunnels of evergreens siding the trails, the place has a bit of a winter fantasyland feel to it. And when you step off the North Peak Express and turn around and all of northern New Hampshire rolls out before you, the mountains humped and glorious and Mt. Washington shimmering in the distance like some kind of palace materializing from an impossible Fantasia, you’re going to know unequivocally that you are in a special place.Looking northeast off the North Peak Express Quad. Mt. Washington is visible on the horizon.The Storm Skiing Podcast is on iTunes, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, TuneIn, and Pocket Casts. The Storm Skiing Journal publishes podcasts and other editorial content throughout the ski season. To receive new posts as soon as they are published, sign up for The Storm Skiing Journal Newsletter at skiing.substack.com. Follow The Storm Skiing Journal on Facebook and Twitter.Check out previous podcasts: Killington & Pico GM Mike Solimano | Plattekill owners Danielle and Laszlo Vajtay | New England Lost Ski Areas Project Founder Jeremy Davis | Magic Mountain President Geoff Hatheway | Lift Blog Founder Peter Landsman | Boyne Resorts CEO Stephen Kircher | Burke Mountain GM Kevin Mack | Liftopia CEO Evan Reece | Berkshire East & Catamount Owner & GM Jon Schaefer| Vermont Ski + Ride and Vermont Sports Co-Publisher & Editor Lisa Lynn| Sugarbush President & COO Win Smith| Get on the email list at www.stormskiing.com

Can you guess that celebrity's voice? Because Jay can't.

New Riff is a name that has become synonymous with bourbon lovers. You may have recalled our conversation with Jay Erisman, Vice President, back on Episode 072, but this time we get to speak with Owner, Ken Lewis, who drives a bunch of the decision making behind the company. It feels like an episode of How I Built This as we get to hear Ken’s story. From owning and hustling liquor stores to eventually selling all that to start a distillery, hiring some great people, and having a few strokes of good luck to put him in the position where he is today. Then we also get to hear about his thoughts on stickers and some future plans he has in store for New Riff as well. Show Partners: The University of Louisville now has an online Distilled Spirits Business Certificate that focuses on the business side of the spirits industry. Learn more at uofl.me/pursuespirits. In 2013, Joe Beatrice launched Barrell Craft Spirits without a distillery or defied conventional wisdom. To this day, his team sources and blends exceptional barrels from established producers and bottles at cask strength. Learn more at BarrellBourbon.com. Receive $25 off your first order at RackHouse Whiskey Club with code "Pursuit". Visit RackhouseWhiskeyClub.com. Distillery 291 is an award winning, small batch whiskey distillery located in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Learn more at Distillery291.com. Show Notes: Jim Beam’s Historic Kentucky Home on Airbnb: https://www.travelandleisure.com/hotels-resorts/vacation-rentals/jim-beam-bourbon-historic-kentucky-home-airbnb This week’s Above the Char with Fred Minnick talks about the top 5 states for bourbon besides Kentucky. What is your title? Tell us about your entrepreneurial spirit. How did you get into the alcohol business? How did you end up in Northern Kentucky? Do you have any regrets getting rid of your stores? How did you decide to sell Party Source and start a distillery? How did you get interested in bourbon? When was your first taste of bourbon? How did you find the team to get the business off the ground? How did you chose the mash bills? Tell us about the O.K.I. days. Do you still do contract distilling? So why did you release the bourbon at 4 years? How is such a young product so good? How did you get such a great location? What are your future plans for the bourbon? Tells us about the balboa rye. What do you think of the single barrel stickers? 0:00 Everybody Are you interested in looking at the distilling process and pairing that with key business knowledge such as finance, marketing and operations, then you should check out the online distilled spirits business certificate from the University of Louisville. It's an online program. It can be completed in as little as 15 weeks. It's taught by both of you have all business faculty and corporate fellows. So you're getting real experience from real experts at the most renowned distilleries, companies and startups in the distilling industry. all that's required is a bachelor's degree, go to U of l.me. Slash pursue spirits. 0:34 I thought, you know, this could be almost like semi retirement because once you start distilling, I mean, you just kind of sit around and watch barrels age, right? That's what I assumed would happen. You know, I'd wander in, you know, at noon or something and 0:47 get myself a glass. Hey, you 0:48 know, how hard can it be? You know, you're just gonna watch these barrels. Get old 1:04 What's going on everybody? It is Episode 223 of bourbon pursuit. I'm Kenny, one of your host, and it's time for the bourbon news so let's get to it. Woodford Reserve is releasing their fall 2019 Masters collection is a chocolate malted rye bourbon, this limited edition and one time release is offering a different flavoring technique where they toast the ride grain just long enough that it begins to taste like chocolate. This bourbon will have a suggested retail price of 129 99. It has hints of guests that dark chocolate as well as spice coming in and at 90.4 proof. The completed mash bill will be 70% corn 15% of the chocolate malted rye in 15% of distillers malt. Baker's bourbon is getting a facelift and a rebranding as well as a new limited edition offering. This one sort of flew under the radar for a lot of people. It was first picked up almost a year ago by ski Through the TTP just kind of trolling through the website, but now people are starting to find it on the shelves. The Baker's bottles with the black wax that we once knew is going away but there's going to be an upgraded packaging and a slightly higher price tag coming in as well. It is now changing from a small batch 107 proof to a single barrel but still at 107 proof like keeping a seven year age statement. There's also going to be a limited edition 13 year addition of bakers that will have an adorning a metallic inspired label as well as a metal neck charm. We've seen pictures of them already out there so keep your eyes peeled when you're going to the liquor stores. Travel and Leisure magazine has reported that starting on Monday, October 21 you will be able to rent Jim beam's historic home on Airbnb being Suntory will release a limited number of one night stays available for booking through the end of 2019 and each day is priced at just a mere $23 and this marks the same exact price as a bottle of Jim Beam black bourbon. The only catch is that you have to be 21 years or older to stay inside the home. But inside this store home, you're going to have three bedrooms as well as two and a half bathrooms and it overlooks the beautiful ever bought lake. And it comes stocked with a full bar of Jim Beam Bourbons. You can read more about it with the link in our show notes. New riff is a name that's become synonymous with bourbon lovers. And you may recall our conversation with JS man who's the Vice President and back on episode 72. But this time we get to speak with Ken Lewis who drives a bunch of the decision making behind the company. It almost feels like an episode of how I built this as we get to hear Ken's story of owning and hustling liquor stores to eventually selling out a lot of that and to start a distillery hiring some great people. And as most of these stories go, it's just a few strokes and good luck to put them in the position where he is today. Then we wrap it up by getting Be Here some of the future plans he has in store for new riff as well. All right, now let's get to it. Here's Joe from barrel bourbon. And then you've got Fred Minnick with above the char. 4:11 Hey everyone, Joe here again. In 2013. I launched barrell craft spirits without a distillery and defied conventional wisdom. To this day, my team and I sourcing blend exceptional barrels from established producers and bottle strength. Find out more at barrell bourbon com. 4:26 I'm Fred minnick, and this is above the char. This week's idea comes from Patreon supporter bill now, Bill asked give me an overview of the production and other states who is making their own juice. When did they start? Is Kentucky bourbon better? pick five states and highlight the top distiller in each one? Well, I think it makes most sense to take a look at the states that are bordering Kentucky. The states that are bordering Kentucky have the ability to actually pluck talent from the distilling capital of the United States. Isn't that that is Kentucky. There's no question about that. You also have access to the still makers and the and the training and, you know, places that are close to Kentucky can, you know quickly drive down here and learn from the likes of Vendome or independent stave, etc, etc, etc. to the access to talent that puts Indiana right up there. And of course Indiana has the MVP ingredients distillery that has, you know, goes back to the 1800s. It's in Lawrenceburg, Indiana, former seniors plant and I dare say you know, their bourbon rivals Kentucky's on a regular basis. Indiana is also home to you know, upstarts like Cardinal spirits that are very exciting. So Indiana is definitely on that top five list for me, Tennessee. Obviously it's known for jack daniels but we can't under look like some of the other great whiskey coming out there. Whether you like the style or not George decal is putting a lot of bourbon out onto the market, either through you know source purveyors or under their own label. And it's getting a lot of attention winning a lot of awards. You also have Charlie Nelson's Greenbrier distillery uncle nearest is coming on Coursera is in Tennessee so Tennessee is a state that is a no brainer to put on this top five. Now when you get outside of the states that really border Kentucky and are really growing on, you know, distilling wise, Texas stands out to me in a big, big way. Texas is a state that really they support anything from Texas. Texans are very proud of their state. And so if there's a Texas whiskey, it's selling out on those local stores, whether it's good or not, it's got that brand of Texas on it and people want that. That said I think about Connie's kind of stands out as the best from a from a quality perspective, garrison brothers does really well in blind tastings too. So Texas is one to keep your eye on. The one problem with Texas is they sometimes struggle with you know, water resources. So here's the hope and they get a lot of good rain. They can apply that to making good whiskey. I think Colorado is another one of those states. That's fascinating. Colorado really didn't come on until, you know, until the last decade. You've got Breckenridge there but a distillery that's really fascinating to me is to 91 to 90 was ran by this guy named Michael Myers. No affiliation with, you know, the Halloween guy, but he's a former fashion photographer. And he went from having a whiskey on the market that was just kind of so so to really improving it. So he's one of the most improved distillers that I've tasted in my career. And so he's done a nice nice job of building that brand in in Colorado and he finishes in Aspen stage and I tell you what, it's a fascinating flavor. So I think to 91 is an exciting story. I'm from from point A to point B. So I'm excited to see where they where they go next. Now rounding out this list, I'm going to have to say I'm going to pluck into the historical database of my brain in some ways, and say that New York is an extremely, extremely important state for the growth and rise of craft distilling period, when Tuttle town hit the scene in the early 2000s with Hudson baby bourbon, nobody really understood bourbon. It was not a time it's not like today or we had all these forums and people are talking about it or podcasts and everything. This was a time when people still thought bourbon had to be made in Kentucky. So what Hudson baby bourbon did for the conversation of bourbon just in general, is it allowed people to talk about well wait, bourbon doesn't have to be made in Kentucky, it can be made in New York can be made in Colorado can be made anywhere in the United States. And so that Hudson baby bourbon and New York open a lot of doors for people. So that's my list bill, Tennessee, Indiana, Texas, Colorado, New York. And if you guys have have an idea for above the char hit me up on Patreon that's at bourbon pursuit on Patreon or on Instagram or Twitter at Fred Minnick. That's at Frederick. Until next week. Cheers. 9:14 Welcome back to the episode of bourbon pursuit, the official podcast of bourbon. Kenny riding solo today coming to Northern Kentucky in the Covington area with a brand owner that, you know, this is this is one of the brands that have really started to garner a lot of national attention. They were once known for Okay, I, we had a few other people on the podcast. I think it was like two years ago now. And I'm now coming back because this this brand is starting to blow up so much. And it's amazing that the the national attention has been getting at just a four year product. And we're going to talk about that a lot more in depth because today on the show, we have the owner Ken Lewis. So Ken, welcome to the show. Thank you very 9:58 much can I appreciate it? So what do you go by You wouldn't just go by owner the entrepreneur the, you know when the head man in charge 10:04 Yeah, I'll check writer that's my main function it seems like founder, you know owner Yeah. 10:11 So you've been you're you're kind of a serial entrepreneur serial owner. So this isn't your first venture into not only just the the liquor business, but you've done something. I mean, let's talk about before sure party source, like was there was there a time before then where you're doing sort of entrepreneurial things? Absolutely. 10:29 Well, I started in, in the alcohol business and and I sort of hate to date myself, but it's a fact in 1975, so I was 25 years old. So been around the business my entire career. I fell into it at that time. But I found that I really enjoyed entrepreneurship and the alcohol industry in general, and I just kept growing with it because that's kind of what I like to do is grow a brand or grow a business and taking some side steps, but they've always been an alcoholic beverages. 10:59 So What was that that first venture into the alcohol? Well, 11:02 I the story real quickly because it's a cute story but a true story is I was actually an English teacher in high school for two years out of graduate school. And my wife wanted to go to medical school and we didn't have the money and but that was okay too. And I was not living. I'm a native Lily Valium, but I wasn't living and loyal at the time I was in, in the Detroit area in the suburbs. So my father and brought his brother to loyal and had been successful at what was the predecessors of discount department stores, you know, Walmart before there was Walmart, there was a chain in every city my dad had gone from World War Two and surplus military and had then gone into discount department store anyway, he had a very excellent location. And it was alcohol was fair traded the state set the prices It was kind of a no brainer. Businesses just sort of showed up and if you had a good location, it was pretty easy so 11:56 people drink when good times and bad good 11:59 times and bad. And and and you just needed a good location. So he set up my uncle, he's trying to help him out with this wonderful location for a real small liquor store. And my uncle turned out to be a drunk, a thief. He was a womanizer, and he was definitely a gambler. So his idea of running a business was the show. I 12:25 think he hit every single one of the Cardinals. Well, 12:27 yeah, he was good at that. And he was an all around jerk, too. So anyway, he, his idea of running a business was to come in in the morning at like 630 in the morning, take whatever cash he could out of the cash register and a bottle for the day and then disappear. Well. Needless to say, after about no matter how easy the businesses with that kind of approach. After eight or nine months, the business it failed, and it was shuttered and my dad said, you know, this is a no brainer. Why don't you come to town? Quit teaching for one year, take over this liquor store. I'm sure you can make enough money maybe to say Your wife to medical school. And you know, you can go back to teaching you know that you can do this as a side gig. So we didn't use Word gig. That was that's definitely not a 1975 word. But anyway, I did it. And I said, why not. And so he loved me enough to get started. And I really enjoyed it. I love. I love the people part of it. I love retailing. It was it was in the West End, African American area of blue collar area of loyal. I loved learning, you know, just about people and what they were doing. It was before urban renewal, so the very intact communities and I felt that they made me feel a part of the community. I just, I feel like it was my street education and I was there for seven or eight years. I paid my dad back after one year I was so proud and I never went back to teaching and just stayed in the alcohol industry. So that's my creation myth. 13:53 And so your dad was the store owner at the time and he told you to run it is that what 13:56 no he owned the discount department store okay, right next door, the generated The traffic guy made it such a great location. But we were right on the corner, you know, with our own independent little store. And it was like 1500 square feet. So tiny little store and I just kept going. And then without trying to be too boring here. This is 14:15 how I built Well, 14:16 after seven or eight years, Kentucky eliminated fair trade it was eliminated through a court case, because the state was actually setting prices for private enterprise so it was thrown out and no one knew what to do. So I said what the heck I'll I'll do something. So at that time that the trend in retail was big box stores and you know, maybe there are a few of your older listeners that will remember that, you know, it's just cut cases by cheap by NDO cut the cases, no frills and let the consumer just come in and save money and it was a big trend. And I said, well, let's try that with alcohol and no one else is doing anything Kentucky sigh I found this old AMP and Shively, another blue collar area of low evil and I rented the whole place and I started this started like in September and it was not going so well I mean I was doing okay but was wasn't gaining much traction my all everybody was interested in the industry and what I was doing and not very happy because you know people want to keep preserved the past and they didn't like this young upstart with new ideas for the alcohol industry so everybody is watching me like a hawk. And we also had the first PC and the small business that I knew of in loyal and in order to because we had a fair number of skews even even for the you know, even compared to today, we still had a fair number of skews so the computer was the only way at retail to manage them and I was doing all the data input and everything I was working you know, 18 hours a day and we had a law in Kentucky and I'm sure it's still is that you cannot sell below cost. Accidentally I was so tired sometimes I made mistakes. And I would sell you know I would actually put into the computer the cost instead of the price or something. Yeah, so accidentally I was selling a few items below cost 15:58 me like a like a consumer is like perfect, perfect storm. 16:02 Yeah, you can come in, you know talking about looking for destinies you can just come in and looking for deal. So anyway, its competitors are watching me they noticed that they turned me into the state ABC board and this is a magical story and it's absolutely true story. So the Saturday before Thanksgiving, the courier journal, the big newspaper of Louisville was doing a story I'm sure it was going to end up on, you know, right next to the obituaries or something, nothing story, but they were in the building with a photographer. And just at that moment, on a Saturday morning, the state ABC showed up with three armed officers. And while the photographer and the courier Journal reporter were there, they literally arrested me and handcuffed me for selling alcohol below cost. And this ended up on the Sunday before Thanksgiving on the front page of the courier journal was some headline like young entrepreneur blows away the liquor industry selling products to cheeky 17:00 arrest. It's amazing that you get arrested for that 17:02 well and it was ridiculous because you know, within one hour they they you know somebody the supervisor was apologizing and they let me go and it ended up like three months later I paid like a $50 fine and you know, it was no problem but it put me on the front page of the newspaper and then of course all the suburbanites couldn't get there fast enough and it was Thanksgiving and we were we were a success from that point. 17:23 It tell me you gave that newspaper like frame somewhere in your 17:26 Yeah, I think that actually I don't have it on a wall and I've actually tried to research and I have to be more diligent But anyway, it's a it's a true story we got started and then that grew into a chain at one point of six discount liquor stores in the state of Kentucky and Northern Kentucky and for two up here and for loyal. It was a big chain and just to conclude the story about died lose track of time and maybe 1214 years ago, I was really very tired of being a corporate person. I'm not born to do that. I like being on the street. I like being in a register. I like You know being in the in the trenches and I wasn't happy I had like 350 employees and you know a lot of debt a lot that's a lot to manage it was a lot to manage to cities and and and you know, so it's dealing the lawyers and bankers and all the problems personnel problems that got big and blown up, got to my desk and I wasn't doing I was unhappy. And so I I like to express it as I jumped off the capitalist trade. And I sold five of the six stores because I really liked running a store and I kept the party source in Bellevue Newport right next to Cincinnati. And it was was 18:34 the reason for that was it because it was a very high traffic high volume or was it because you're like, I need to get a change at a level what was the 18:41 precisely very pressing on your on your part because that's exactly the two reasons so I felt it had the best future because Ohio still 25 years ago had state stores. So and so it was a no brainer if you were very, very close and we were at the first exit of the main main interstate interstate of The East End of Cincinnati and we are doing extremely well and I thought it could grow and be even greater store so I wanted to focus on it. And secondly was 100 miles from a local side stop working seven days a week, because I had a family had children. So those are the two reasons that I kept it and I love that store. And the party source today I'm happy to say is the week say that we believe it to be the largest single store in the United States alcoholic beverage store physically and as today about $48 million in business but of course, I had to divest it five years ago in order to become a distiller but it's I sold it to my employees I'm very proud of that. And they're doing very well today and have paid me back and and it's it's moving forward it's still a great store. 19:47 So while you were still on the retail side, was there ever a point where you had any mild regrets or saying like what if if I didn't get rid of these these five locations like could have grown bigger Could I have gotten a Because if you think of today of what's happening, you've got the total lines of the world that kind of buy up people like is there is there ever that kind of what if scenario in your head 20:08 no because and that just gets into personal philosophy, you know, the point of life to me is that just become rich. I think I think that's a root of a lot of problems today in corporate America and and and with our society in general there's too much greed and and it's all about me. So I enjoyed the entrepreneurial challenge and I liked working with people, a young team of employees as well as the customers and I love the freedom of owning my own store at that point you know, selling five of them I was debt free, so I could do what I wanted to do in the store and not have to do any short term thinking and so never looked back I have I'm happy to say I've always had a you know, very nice upper middle class lifestyle and by God that's enough. I mean, having some control over your life and and feeling that you're doing some good and that you're sharing enjoying some lives of your employees and being a good community member and caring about the environment and you know, having some balance in life and purpose and meeting, not just trying to make money and get bigger and bigger and bigger and die rich that never had any attraction to me. 21:14 So you're you're running one of the states not only just the state because you're here as you said, You're the first exit off of the coming off from Cincinnati in Kentucky. And it was it for a lot of people. It's it's a destination, it is a destiny, retail location. And at the same time, you're also like I said, it's huge. You're competing with the liquor barns in Louisville at this time. What was what was the determining factor to say I'm ready to hang this up and move to something new 21:42 well, and the liquor barns in Louisville were the original four of them were three of them were my my stores. Okay, so there we go. You know, so I mean that the circle goes around, but and they're good customer today and a valued customer of us today. The motivation Kenny was just Sometimes we do things and unconsciously our subconscious takes over. And just as whatever was 12 1415 years ago, I was just not happy and I call it my 71 aha moment because 70 one's the road between Cincinnati or Northern Kentucky and loyal and I was on it a lot. And then you know, had a lot of time to think and, you know, it just I wasn't happy and I wanted to make a change and I think subconsciously I knew that I was a little bit of a burnout I had been doing it at that point, retailing which is a very, very, very hard work and it is six, seven days a week and you know, all the holidays and so forth. So and fairly repetitious. You know, I was a buyer, I was a spirits buyer as well as the owner. And it's just the drill and it's, you know, as wonderful drill and I loved it, but it's intense and deals are coming at you and there's a lot of paperwork and and it's a routine that goes on and on and on. So I think subconsciously I was a little bit of a burnout at that point. I didn't want to retire. I love working and I feel that it's healthy for the mind. And I think retirement is like, announcing to your body that you're ready to die or something. So I really do believe that and so I was not at all interested in any of that. So, 23:12 you know, most people just get a Porsche. That's usually what, 23:16 you know, everybody thinks. I mean, when I sold the you have no idea what people said to me and what I know what they were not saying to me. You know, they were completely astonished and befuddled that a guy would take the party source doing $40 million a year debt free, you know, just a gravy train and not just like retire to a beach and on Florida or something and let a manager run it at least but to sell it, you know, sell it to the employees, you know, and take that risk on top of everything else was going to the spirits business, build a distillery madness, absolute madness, but anyway, JS men is my wonderful, fantastic well known a lot of your folks listeners will know who jr Smith is. So he's my co founder. I like to Thinking that way, although he's not an ownership, and Jay was my fine spirits buyer, the specialty spirits buyer at the party source. So he's worked for me for many years. And jokingly say, you know, can we're both watching this brown goods revolution happening and resurgence and resurrection. right under our nose. We see it at the party source every day of our allies. This thing's got legs. So, I credit Jay with, you know, why don't we open a distillery? Yeah, that's a great idea. Oh, it's funny. 24:31 Because they're not 24:32 any more good ones. You know, here we are running the party source, you know, you know, tracking money to the bank. Oh, that's a great idea. Jay. Well, along the way, it became a little more serious. So I do credit Jay and not myself with the idea for starting new Earth distilling. But it was it just appealed to my entrepreneurial side of me and the challenge aspect to get back into the game and and see what I could create and what my lifetime of experience in alcoholic beverages could do. And I love The idea of the challenge of starting from the ground up and building a team of young people, which has occurred and they're fantastic, and I just really wanted to have a second act in my life. And I actually and I'll tell you honestly, I thought, you know, this could be almost like semi retirement because once you start distilling, I mean, you just kind of sit around and watch barrels age, right? That's what I assumed would happen. You know, I'd wander in you know, noon or something and 25:26 get myself a glass Hey, you 25:28 know, how hard can it be you know, you're just gonna watch these barrels get old. So of course, it's proven to be way more challenging way more dynamic way more interesting than any of that. But that was the impetus was being at the party source seeing it happen. Realizing that why not Northern Kentucky all the action, the limited action there was seven or eight years ago was all in central Kentucky and just starting and loyal. You know, why not Northern Kentucky because we're right next to a city that's more than twice as large as local, very wealthy city and a sophisticated city. And, you know and the party source have done so well right next to Cincinnati, why wouldn't a distillery so we arrived decided to go ahead and take on the challenge and sell the party source and get back out there on the on the interest position where I just feel comfortable in a way that most people don't. 26:17 So you decide to sell the party source. Was this because you needed the funds to be able to start the distillery or is that is there another motivating factor? Well, 26:25 the main reason is in the three tier system, you cannot be a distiller or manufacturer, and a retail or wholesale or the that's what the three tier means I came across you can't be both. 26:36 I've also heard you could probably put your wife's name under the contract. I know you can get around. You mean that's another legal hurdle but yeah, 26:43 but but it's not true in Kentucky. And it is true in some other states, for instance, New York as a one store law and there's plenty of families that have four or five stores. But that is not true in Kentucky and we are way too big and way too visible to play any shitty shenanigans with the ABC and Too much is way too much as invested in it risk to take any of that on So, and I thought it was a great thing selling the store to the employees. And, you know, I take you know, when all of a sudden done I'll be very very very pleased with the success and the reputation and the great whiskey of new roof but I also will be proud that I've changed 100 or 200 lives and giving themselves some pride and some self some control over their lives as employees and an employee owned company, and a little nest egg. You know, I said when I retired when I sold the store, and my general manager john styles is a fantastic guy took a took it over. So we had an experience management team. I said there's only one thing I want, as long as I'm alive. When someone retires and they're getting like a six figure check. Even if it's just one of those big checks, you know for show. I want to him hand the check to that employee. That's what I want out of this deal because we're talking about you know, 15 $16 an hour employees. Maybe some Someday things go well and they seem to be after 20 years, some of them might be handing them a six figure retirement, you know, for people that are living paycheck to paycheck and I want to be, I want to be when that magic there when that magic moment happens. 28:13 Yeah, I mean, I think you're you're really wrapping up the epitome of what it is to be a better than, than most of the entrepreneurs that are out there that are after chasing that that big paycheck or chasing that big payday. Your personality is really showing through that it's a you're one of the good spirited people that are out there and, and trying to build something that's that's ultimately bigger than yourself. 28:34 So many other people. And I don't want to get on a tangent, but there's a big movement in the United States, called a lot of things. But there's chapters all over the United States called conscious capitalism, you know, then again, I don't want to get into a tangent. I'm not talking about bourbon. But the idea that capitalism doesn't have to be as raw and just ingredients selfish that you can care about the community and care about your employees. You can care about the environment. That the bottom line should involve all those stakeholders not just ownership so let's let's get back to bourbon let's 29:05 let's definitely get back to bourbon kind of talk about your, your introduction to it as well because I think we need to capture that because, you know, you had this very entrepreneurial mind going into it, Jay said, hey, there's this brown water revolution. But was there a point when you said like, you know, like, I'm from Kentucky, I enjoy bourbon. I like bourbon. You've worked in the stores. We're pushing bourbon to people or people to bourbon, like, kind of talk about your gravitation just towards the product itself. 29:33 Sure. And I'll be dead honest about all this. First of all, Jay and I are great pair and that is cofounders. Because Jay is a Trump has a tremendous palate. And he's also a tremendous historian of alcoholic beverages around the world. And he was the fine spirits buyer and he would sleuth out things that, you know, people in the Midwest certainly other than the two coasts had never heard of him brought in so he knew he has a network of people he knows about. around the world. So, Jay brings to new riff, the great depth and honest depth of knowledge and a profound palette, and, and sophistication about alcoholic beverages to, to our company. I don't bring any of that. You know, I mean, at the party source, we are phenomenal wine store, and I'm a knowledgeable amateur. That's my extent of it. So I feel I'm a knowledgeable amateur about brown goods. But no expert do not have a refined palette. I know my place and that's good too. So that's what I bring to the team, of course, the founder of the financial aspect and the team building and the long term strategy and perspective of where the industry is going and so forth. So we're very good team together. So I think that's been a core of how we've, you know, started new ref and where we want it to go with it. Can you remember your first taste of bourbon? My first taste of bourbon was probably like a lot of lot of your listeners It was and I do remember, unfortunately, I was in the backseat of a car when I haven't seen y'all know where this is going. Yeah, all bad. And it was I'll never forget it was JW dat in a pint bottle and drank it straight. And you know what happened in the backseat of that car, which I spent about three hours terribly drunk, and a happy cleaning up before I turned it back to my day. So hoping he would never know Chris, he knew instantly. But that was my first experience. Like, I'm sure many of your listeners. 31:31 Absolutely, absolutely. So let's talk about, you know, the breaking of the ground and trying to build the team here. I know you've talked about JA and bringing him in, but what does it take to find? The still the distillers, everything like that to actually start getting the business off the ground and as well as sourcing because I know you had source products that are beginning to 31:51 well, the wonderful, yes, I mean, again, we Jay and I are good team and I think in some ways, I'm a good leader and founder be I know my own weaknesses. And I know what I don't know, which is a famous line from the past know what you don't know. And so when we started, we decided to approach this as a very serious enterprise. We decided to approach it a scale, that we would command the presence of Greater Cincinnati, and tend to preclude competition from coming in. Our goal from the very beginning was to be one of the great small distilleries of the world. Knowing that would take decades perhaps to accomplish and who knows, it'll be a self congratulatory thing, no one's going to notice that but to play in the sand lot of some of the greatest stories of the world small ones, is our goal and remains to this day our goal. And so in order to do that, we wanted to do everything extremely well, right from the beginning and put the resources which I felt we had with the selling of the party source, to work to to wait as long as we needed to for Five years to start bringing out whiskey and to just go for it in terms of quality in our and to find a leadership position as a small distillery the United States. So knowing that we went out or I went out and found some great people to get started Kentucky's a wonderful resource, the best thing that I did, I did two great things. One is one of my very first hires after Jay was the person who would maintain our plant manager so that he was involved with the construction and every aspect of planning and knew where every pipe was going. And I think that's something that's overlooked by a lot of people is is is you know, is the the guts and the fabric and the the core and the maintenance of your of a very complex manufacturing plant. I knew enough to know to hire a great person who's with us Dean today and he does a super job. 33:52 Dean was actually helping us earlier trying to get the AC turned off. 33:56 He knows that he knows everything. He knows where all the skeletons are, but I mean he knows where every valve is in every pipe and he was part of the construction crew for the year and a half and the whole thing was money very well spent. Second thing I did was found Larry Ebersole, who's the maybe the most important distiller of American history that many people have never heard of. And Larry was the plant manager at Sega drums as you well know, Kenny, for 25 plus years, the head distiller I misspoke, the head distiller at sea drums, and he's the guy that invented the famous 95 five, right recipe that, you know, right? I know what it is, but it used to be, it's more of what is seen on the shelf, and it's wonderful juice and Larry is a brand bread distiller and a wonderful human being. I count him as a good friend, and he was newly retired and living in Hebrew one which is near the Cincinnati airport, which is in Kentucky, and so he's only like 20 miles away, and was kind of pointing it turned out being a consultant. So didn't know how to get started at it is in his backyard it was Yeah, as easy for eight. And so we are a wonderful thing. So he really threw himself into it. best thing I ever did. And with Larry being involved from the very beginning, we knew we would construct and we did construct a very efficient a very, very well thought through distillery and not make some of the mistakes that are easy to make. And secondly, and perhaps in the long run more definitely more important in the long run with Larry on board as our consulting master distiller he would train my Distilling Team which gave me the freedom to pick with his approval, who would be on that steering team and I very deliberately with Jays advice in this regard to we did not go to Maker's Mark or heaven hill or four roses and higher way and assistant Stiller, which is the standard procedure because in the end, distillers do the same thing day after day and forgive me I don't mean to ruffle any feathers traditionally, at least they don't tend to be a very imaginative lot. 36:03 Don't get me Don't break. What's more, don't don't fix what's not broken. 36:07 People want to you want Maker's Mark, you don't want Maker's Mark with cream cheese on it, you know, it's, it's, it's appropriate and it's what they're the corporation's want. So if we hired someone from Maker's Mark, we'd end up with Maker's Mark north. And in truth, that's what happens, you know, when, when folks go from disorder to story, so what I knew and with Jace help, I knew I wouldn't have known this on my own. And Larry to fermentation is the key and distillers tend to poo poo. Traditional distillers tend to poo poo poo, fermentation, they don't pay that much attention to it. But fermentation if you don't have a great fermentation, you're not going to end up with great whiskey in the end. The people the folks that really understand this are brewers 36:52 absolutely their people, they know what they're Do they know. So 36:55 we deliberately went out and hired a fantastic Brewer in this case. It was pretty Ryan sprints who will absolutely be known if he's not already to so many people as a great young distiller and will truly be in the Hall of Fame someday. And Brian had been a small, small Brewer with a microbrewery in Cincinnati and for about eight years had worked at Sam Adams and I'm not sure how many people know that Sam Adams is brewed in Cincinnati not in Boston. 37:23 Obviously I'm learning something today and 37:24 it is it's the old beautiful plant and 95% of Sam Adams is burden sensing that 37:29 now that name I've heard of the beautiful because it's like a Northern Kentucky kind of 37:32 well Cincinnati Cincinnati kind of it but but the plant was closed and And anyway, so Sam Adams owns it. So he worked for Sam Adams over there and a serious industrial plant. So he brought to us when I hired him and he wanted out because he's not a corporate kind of guy and he wanted to get back into you know, brewing so to speak, or, you know, the guts of doing it not just the big industrial and it was a unionized plan is to this day, unionized by anyone at different scale. So we found, you know, we know so many people in Kentucky and Cincinnati we found Brian and recruited him one very hard, eager to come in here to take the challenge when he saw how real we were, and to be part of a startup. And he just brought that fantastic imagination and knowledge of fermentation and an understanding of grains and malts that traditional distillers are just very linear and very blinders on 38:26 dance. So get your percentages, you're throwing your yeast. 38:30 Yeah, see you in a few days. Let's see. Yeah, well, every day do it every day and they make some great whiskey at all these heritage distilleries Believe me, I'm totally understand that. But we wanted to do a little riff or our own little tweaks and things. And with Larry able to train. It gave us the freedom to assemble that team, so no one in the distillery other than Larry had ever worked into this story before, but with Larry there, we did it as a team and we have a fantastic group of Six distillers today they're all career. They're all doing a super job. And Larry is he trained them, he stepped back. And that's just he's he was. He's our founding father in many ways. And Larry was very, is obviously very rice centric. It was the 95 five, right? He's so proud of and so and we happen to fit our tastes as well. So New Earth is truly a rice centric distillery. And I will, I've said this many times, we make fantastic bourbon. But I think our long term reputation becoming one of the great small distilleries of the world will have a lot to do with, with rise and rise of fence, interesting niche that I think we can play in that sandlot very, very well and be extremely well known around the world for our rye. And maybe stay a little bit away from the great heritage global distilleries you know in the future because you're we're all going to need a niche. 39:56 So did Larry help you out with choosing the mash bills as well for everything you're doing or is that more of a consensus from the group? There are more craft distilleries popping up around the country now more than ever. So how do you find out the best stories and the best flavors? 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It's taken over by our Distilling Team and Brian now galera likes to come and taste and and offer some thoughts if we run into something new every now and then that's really past our abilities. We call her and he, you know, he really thinks very fondly of us. And we were his first client and, and I think he's enjoying our growth and, and is very optimistic about our future. So 42:27 well before we start talking about you know a lot about your bourbon because I know you're doing crazy stuff with barrels and types of grains and malts and stuff like that. Let's talk about the okay, because I know you're sourcing at one point, what was the what was the gist? I mean, that's the thought process that a lot of startups go through and they think, Okay, well, let's get money rolling in. We'll buy some barrels will bottle it up. And that'll be a way to kind of build some revenue. Is that was that your thought process going into it as well? No. So least you're frank about. 42:57 Always be frank. I mean, the nice thing is you're dealing with The owner I don't have any, anybody I have to answer to and I'm getting older. So I'm pretty, pretty straightforward. Know, the answer was we were going for quality and we knew I mean, remember I you know, I own the largest liquor store in the United States I was the spirits buyer, I, I saw the cannery I saw the dishonesty of the, of the brown goods business I, I hated all of it and saw it from the beginning that the not disclosing not disclosing your source charging too much, you know, in a pretty perfume bottle for one year old whiskey and, and, you know, hurting the reputation of all craft distilleries, I saw all the bad things that have happened and continue to happen in this industry. So we wanted no part of it. That's not how you build a great small the story of the world. So from the beginning, we were always going to be transparent and incredibly open with everyone about everything we did. I had fortuitously bought a J's urging 350 barrels From MCP years couple years before we even thought about the distillery concept Oh, wow. So I had I hit Yeah, let's just you know, we'll bottle this someday for the party source. And so I you know, I wish of course I bought thousands. I hate to tell you they were like, I really hate to say this, they were like $375 a barrel. Oh 44:20 man. And you know, we've seen a in the price list now, 44:24 thousands and thousands of dollars if you could even get them and they were already like three years old when I bought them. So, fortuitously I had those barrels and we never bought any other barrels. So it's only 350 and the idea of having those barrels and okay i, we deliberately released it very, very slowly. The idea was just to have some bourbon in the distillery a good bourbon, because it's it's marketing and brand building. People come to this story, like new f1 it's two years old. They know intellectually that were too young to have great whiskey, but they still want to taste great whiskey. They still think you should have a final bourbon sitting around. So we did. And we were very clear it was okay i that we sourced, it wasn't ours, we just bottled it, dumped it and bottled it. And we deliberately rationed it out to last until our bourbon was available. And then we always intended and we did kill the brand because we we don't want to have anything to do with source goods. So it served its purpose extremely well. And then as you well know, Kenny, in the end, when it was 12 years old, it was a terrific value. And when people heard that it was ending, you know, became a cult item and they went crazy about it and it's still a little bit of one of those legendary things, but the purpose is never to have any source goods and that the sales of 300 or so barrels you know, for the size of new riff never moved the needle as far as helping us to survive. We we survived on my proceeds from the party source and on contract is still in for until we had our own whiskey to sell 46:00 Yeah, absolutely. So contract distilling is it's still a part of what your your daily businesses diminishing 46:03 all the time that the idea of the contract is still in was to survive. Until we became till whiskey could be four or five years old, serve that purpose, it was maybe about 45% of our budget and allowed us to be completely full which distillery in production, the story is much better when it's running, you know, at full steam, then turn it on and turn it off the equipment and so forth. So it serves that purpose. And gradually we're we're getting out of the, as we can afford to we're getting out of the contract distilling and taking back all those barrels for our own. You know, stock 46:39 your own aging and everything like that. 46:41 Yeah, we're doing a little bit and we'll do less every year. 46:44 So four years was kind of your your mark, when when new riffs started coming out. Was it for because you felt like it was ready? Or was it for because you said I think this is to the point where we don't have to worry about like, at this point, we don't to worry about putting age statements on the bottle. By TTD law so what was the what was the idea on for there? And were you nervous? 47:06 Yes, I was nervous. Of course. 47:09 JS man is the answer. JA again as our co founder and fantastic and brings that knowledge and Jays idea which I bought into and the rest of the team did from the beginning was let's not release any whiskey till it can be bottled in bond Jays, a historian and he's a lover things past very, very smart about the future too, of course, and, and current distilling, but felt that the, you know, years ago he felt that the bottled in Bond was was right for revival and that the original, the first federal law about food and drug purity United States was about alcohol in 1897, the bottled in Bond Act and Jay felt that the incipient incipient revival bottled in Bond was a fantastic movement and we wanted to be very much a family Remember that so we always intended to wait to be at least four years old. And then along the way we were very, very pleased with Larry results helped to, to be tasting things as you go along and things were moving Well, we liked our juice. We liked the way it was aging. So along the way we realized that getting to be at least four years ago, we were going to have a very credible whiskey out there. And I wanted to and I made sure that it was at a very credible and easygoing price because again, as a retailer, I understood marketing and sales and pricing, and wanted our whiskey to come out at a premium level and pricing, which you deserve this and also is a brand marker, but wanted to always make it an appropriate fair price. One, one click above the the global heritage companies, but not not at the kind of pricing that I've always found repugnant as a retailer and I certainly did as a consumer as well. 48:54 And not only that, as I mean, you come out with this the four year old product in right away. It started It's like kind of taking over a lot of the bourbon culture and the bourbon. mindshare, because everybody's amazed at the taste of a four year old product I don't think there's a lot of or really there's any other product out there today that can really say that it it competes of what new roof does at its at its age, like is there something that you can say that you can attribute that to? Sure or weapon of their sprinkled dust that you're putting? 49:25 sprinkle dust is the water? Yeah, it really is Kenny and and that's a nice story too. Because we first started when we plan and we're very close to breaking ground on the distillery we didn't know about our water source, our water source turned out to be an aquifer the high river aquifer 100 feet under under the distillery property and we didn't know about it when we first started planning but along the way someone said something to Jay you know you know there's there's a lot of water you guys gonna do a well and Jay ran with it. He's smart enough to listen and think you know and that's Jays personality. I mean he's a scientist and interested in everything and he thought I'm going to find out what the heck's under us. And we did we did we ran a test well, and then worked with the University of Kentucky to to analyze and understand what was going on underneath us. So geologically, it was just turned out to be a bonanza. Because the the aquifer and brief and I'm no stem person myself, so forgive me. But the aquifer essentially is a almost inexhaustible pool of water under the far northern part of Northern Kentucky, and it's created because the glacier stopped and created the Ohio River and created the hills of Cincinnati. That geologic force continues to the state of pump want to push water under the Ohio River, and it's going through sand silt, and guess what limestone and then Northern Kentucky from our site right on the river. You go straight up hills to go into southern can lucky to get away from Northern Kentucky. So as you go south, it's going up here. So we're in a bowl and all and as you look and you see the highways and the Brock along the highways, where they do the cuts and the passes and so forth, it's all limestone rock. So it's all coming from two directions and settling. And it's under us in this magnificent huge aquifer under our feet. And it turned out we did all the testing, and it came in and it's magnificent limestone filter, naturally filtered water. It's it had no lead, which is you know, the great thing. It's high calcium from the limestone, very high mineral content, water, and it's 58 degrees year round. So we don't have to have a cooling tower. We're a very environmentally healthy and successful distillery and that water that putting that mineral water right into our mash bill, and you can drink it, we've all drunk it's just hard water. hard water tastes like crap. But it's great for to still it. And I would contend and obviously if someone's going to jump up out of this microphone Want to choke me but I believe it or not, Northern Kentucky new roof has the best water in Kentucky for distilling because the fact of the matter that the marketing people don't want you to know is that almost every other and perhaps every other significantly sized distillery in the state of Kentucky uses city water or river water and then they filter the hell out of it turned it into our water so they're putting into their mash bills whatever they're tell showing you in your advertising, 52:30 you know, whether it's coming from some sort of wheel that's spinning in 52:34 a lake or something absolutely in this wonderful spring and all that which long ago they outgrew you know the whole thing. But you know mean Buffalo Trace Polson the Kentucky River you know, the brown Forman polls for local municipal water I can go on and on and on and i'm not i'm not slamming them in any way they make fantastic whiskey. But we are bringing a natural high mineral content, awesome water into our message. Bill and God, darn it, I think that's when you only have like three ingredients going into your mash bill and one of them changes dramatically. That means something and then you layer on that Kenny, you know the the fact that we're all about quality at every turn and you know the the corn comes from a family farm the same one that for roses uses in Indiana and we can go on and on and on we we come off the still at less than the maximum we go into the barrel at 110. Instead of the legal maximum 125 we use 18 and 24 months aged in oak staves instead of the standard, you know, barrel at $100 more a barrel than other people. We go on and on and on. It's all about quality at every turn. But it starts with that water. So there are very good reasons. It's not by chance that our four year old thank you for saying so i think is a very good product. And you're going to want to get to this it's going to be fantastic when it's seven eight and 10 53:54 Oh yeah, that's what we'll save that here for a second because I kind of want to know your your plans for the future with that, but You know, back to this, you know, let's let's rewind it back another 1520 years or maybe 25 years, when you bought the location of the party source was it? You look at it now like just dumb luck. 54:11 Yeah, we bought the land and the distillery for your listeners that don't know, the distillery is right in front of the party source and we're right on right on the river. Across from Cincinnati, you can't get any closer to Cincinnati. But that was the point of the retail store, because Ohio had state stores and 80% or more of our customers came from Ohio. And that's why the party source grew to be such a large store. It's a it's a natural for Northern Kentucky but it's because we had all of Cincinnati coming to us so and then when I wanted to do the distillery the original plan was just Gee, this is a nice, I own I own some property. And that's another story too. I actually had to take out a levee and build a wall, a flood wall and so forth. million dollar flood wall in order to get more property. But the point was, I thought it'd be a great location. Very well known right in front of the source and there was a symbiotic symbiotic relationship you know people could come on a tour to see us and then walk into this fantastic whiskey store and shop and it's turned out to be like that but dumb luck in terms of the water absolutely dumb luck 55:14 it's just like being in Texas and somebody knock on your door me like oil in your backyard we'd 55:18 like to buy your land Yeah, and you just scratch under your armpits and go all the way down 55:25 so let's talk a bit about like the little bit of future state right because Sure, today we there's a lot of stuff out there it's a lot of for your product. There's people like myself we go we do barrel pics here. It's a four year product. I know that a lot of people we love it as is. However there's always this can't wait until it's six it's eight to 10 years so kind of talk about what your your future plans are to kind of stocks in these barrels. Sure. 55:52 Yeah, it's been it's been a but but first of all, it is a great ride and the four year of the bottle and bond is a wonderful product and will never release any plans. product from our distillery any whiskey that's less than bottled in bond for a year. And, and, and, and hundred proof and or it'll be barrel proof every one of the two. So, and that's why we've been and that's why we're always be because we think that's, we think that's the highest quality expression and that's what we're all about to, to hopefully become one of the great small distilleries of the world. Which by the way, even if we fall short, hey, it's great. I mean, life should be about lofty goals and and trying your damn this and, you know, if we fall short, and you know, we're not quite there. It still is a worthy endeavor. But signs are decent that we might, we've taken a few steps in that direction and we might just get there and 10 or 12 years in some form of recognition from the public and writers in our own self assessment, but 56:48 you really don't want to retire. Do you? 56:50 Know I actually, I'd like to stick around. honest truth is I'd like to stick around long enough in an extremely active role will stay a family business by In the business, everybody here is career we're not selling out, we're not going, we have no interest in one of the big boys buying a minority share, we're surviving. We're getting through the roughest part right now, economically, and we're going to stay 100% independent, because that's really the only way you can really achieve greatness is having incredibly long term thinking, and just be totally disinterested in short term results. So, and having that freedom of without any corporate decision making because whatever anyone says, nothing will change, we're going to buy you out and nothing's going to change. None of your people are going to change everything to say, everything's different a year later. We all know it. It's just it's a fact out there. So we're going to stay independent. And, and that's very important. So we've taken some steps. I mean, I think the fact Kenny, that I'm sure you're aware, we went out to our very first competition we ever went to, because again, why go to all these little county fairs or whatever, just so you can say, award winning, nobody. It doesn't mean anything to the like your listeners. And there's the People that we really care about that will establish our reputation. So we waited. We think like a lot of people that the San Francisco International spirits competition is the main spirits competition. It's an arguable issue but certainly one of the top couple we think it's the 58:15 you came on with a few medals from 58:17 it. Well, the thing is, we submitted all five of the products, we make three whiskeys and two gins and all five of them one double goal. You know, it's unheard of. 58:28 It's It's like going to the Olympics and just like it's 58:30 crazy. I mean, let's put it in context. And, and I'll abstract this real fast and backpedal. But you know, this year factually, Buffalo Trace submitted 21 entries and got seven double goals, numerous submitted five inches and got five double gold. We are not the equivalent above Buffalo Trace far better to story. You know, and they are, in my opinion, the best in the business. But the thing is, we've taken a step toward that goal. We you know, so We feel very encouraged to have some exterior validation. And it's so we're not just in a circle, you know, talking to each other about these things. So anyway, we started to take a step now to get back and sorry that sometimes I run on but it's a very passionate subject. We know to put up the very best whiskey that we can and to really have a very high world reputation as good as our four year old is and it's fairly priced as we will always keep it. We have to have older whiskey. So we've this year, I mean, it's all it gets back to a matrix of economics. Our first year of release, we held back only we held back 20% of everything we make to get older. Next year, we're budgeted for 33 a full third of everything we make, to get older. And what I will say now, which is actually the first time I've ever seen this public So it's a credit to the the reach that that that you guys have and the the interest in the students of your listeners, we're actually going to do a small expansion of the distillery. And we'll get back to that if you want. But the point that I want to make right now is the only purpose of that expansion is not to make more four year old or not to make some more money in the short run. It's to have older whiskey and a lot of it. So we are going to make a stand toward older whiskeys will always have a great four year old bottled in bond product at an extremely fair price. It may not go up in price for 10 years, stay at $40 fine with me. And then eventually we'll have a very fairly priced will have older whiskies and personally we'll see if things change. I'm all for age statements. I think again and and this is really where the future of new roof is going to be his older whiskies a great entry level that is fantastic. For cocktails and it's just fantastic for for sipping on without talking about it. But it'll be the seven year old eight year old, maybe 10 year old and whatever in very in everything that we make getting older that will put us on the map and will really I think make us proud and I think your listeners are going to really want to have someday we're going to try and have enough of it that it's not this high cult high scarcity kind of item I'm not saying that it'll be on a shelf but we want to have a lot more out there you know thousands of cases of older whiskey and not just dribble it out to people 1:01:35 makes more people are makes more sense people to start joining the Rangers program then so they get those was inside. 1:01:41 The Rangers program is ended 1:01:42 but the whistle as it I didn't know that. 1:0

Monetizing Your Content, with Stephen Woessner Good Morning Onward Nation – I’m Stephen Woessner and my hope for you is that 2018 has started off with renewed momentum and velocity in your business. And that you have been able to take time to invest in planning and getting clear on what you most want to accomplish in 2018 – your most vital priorities. The days between Christmas and New Year's are my favorite of the year because of the opportunities to spend time with family and friends, to truly unplug, to think, to pray, and to journal. And this year...I was able to get the time and space that I needed to think deeply and work through my vision for Predictive ROI in 2018. How we are going to grow our team...where we are going to invest our time, talent, and resources...and my Predictive ROI leadership team and I even identified several bold, new initiatives that we will tackle in 2018. We also zeroed in on how we will add greater value to the clients we have the honor of serving each day at Predictive ROI. I also invested time mapping out the practical and tactical lessons I want to share with you, Onward Nation, during the 258 episodes we will air in 2018. We are hard at work in raising the bar in our business – because we want you to raise the standard of what you expect from us each and every day. In fact...one of the ways of the ways we believe we can be of even greater service and value to you also aligns with one of the bold and new initiatives we plan to tackle. Launching a YouTube series. Now, if you just rolled your eyes at the thought of yet another YouTube series...I am actually with you on that...and that was one of the main reasons we have not launched a series sooner. The last thing that business owners need is another self-aggrandizing, reality TV style series that is packed full of drama, busy work, and very light on practical and tactical knowledge that can be applied. Instead...our commitment is to launch a video series that serves as an extension of our Onward Nation podcast...that documents – visually – and in precise detail -- the stories of successful business owners in 2018 and beyond will be the ones who are no longer looking at marketing through the wrong end of the lens – instead – their marketing goes beyond generating new clients and has become an actual revenue stream for their core business...a true profit center. The business owners we will introduce you to have transformed their company’s marketing from an expense on the P&L to a profit center by getting very intentional in three essential areas. First...they got really clear and defined their distinctive point of view – so clear that they created differentiation for themselves in the process, and with it, they gave themselves the ability to charge a premium price for their service offering. Let’s call this their POV for short. The POVs we introduce you to will be bold, some even provocative, but they all add value to the core business by attracting attention of the audience the business is focused on serving. Second...we will introduce you to business owners who have made a commitment to creating strategic, high-quality cornerstone content on a consistent schedule – all designed to cement their POV into the hearts and minds of the people who are following them today – and – their content was good enough to attract the attention of new people...so their audience grew. Third...they were able to monetize their content so that their marketing became a revenue stream. And I am not talking about selling an info course to your email list. But what I am talking about is attracting enough people into your audience – building a nation of true fans that love you so much that you also attract the attention of third party brands who may want to pay you to get in front of your audience with your endorsement. That’s just the tip of the iceberg but that is what can happen when you begin thinking of your content as a service to your audience and you begin thinking of you and your business as a media company. So...I am really excited to bring you lessons from business owners who are doing this successfully so you can take and apply the lessons into your business. We are shooting a lot of video interviews and back stories in Walt Disney World; New York City; Austin, Texas; Providence, Rhode Island, and locations in between. The series will likely launch on YouTube in late March or early April. And I look forward to your feedback once we launch it so we can make it even better and more helpful for you. I will keep you posted on the launch. Okay...so for today’s lesson...let’s go back to how business owners look at marketing, and how if we shift our mindset, we can proactively transform our marketing into a profit center not just a lead generating activity. And I will share with you several powerful examples of business owners whose marketing efforts are not only opening up new opportunities with customers – but they are being paid to produce content...they have truly monetized their content. Sound good? Okay...let’s dive in. In my opinion, most business owners look at their own marketing through the wrong end of the lens. Meaning...they evaluate the success of their marketing efforts solely through vital metrics like website traffic, email optins, click through rates, conversion rates, customer acquisition cost, lifetime value of a customer, retention rates, and so forth. All of these metrics are definitely important for evaluating the health of your sales pipeline and your business development strategy for converting leads into sales. But there can be more – a lot more as it relates to your marketing’s ability to generate revenue. Onward Nation, thanks to the democratization of media channel thanks to social media, email, podcasting, YouTube, and the myriad of other channels, today’s top business owners are now seeing themselves as media companies. When I interviewed Gary Vaynerchuk back in September of 2013...he and I talked about how every company – every business owner needs to think of themselves as a “media company.” And that bold statement is now taking hold – and today’s top business owners are making what may have seemed unrealistic to many several years ago to becoming a critical component within a company’s marketing strategy. So, Onward Nation...if you execute properly – and by that I mean create high quality content, which I will define more clearly here in just a minute – and you share that content across multiple channels – and build an engaged audience across those channels...then you have successful taken your first steps to becoming a media company where the content you produce can generate revenue. How can the content by itself generate revenue? Because there will be other brands who may also want to get in front of that audience...and are willing to pay for that access. When that happens...you as the business owner now have the best of both worlds. You have an audience that loves you and what your company does...and you can generate leads and sales to support your core business from your audience. Awesome. And, you have attracted an audience that other companies will pay you to access and get in front of...and now the content you are creating as part of your marketing strategy also generates revenue. But in order to be successful in monetizing your content...you first need to produce content that is worthy of monetization. So what makes content worthy of monetization? In my opinion, there are two main ingredients to the worthiness recipe: That the content you are producing is valuable and helpful to your current audience -- and – it is valuable enough that it attracts to new people into your community so your audience grows And you are not a one-trick pony. That you are producing quality content, sharing it across multiple channels, and you have created “media properties” because having the properties is what makes your more “sponsorable.” And becoming sponsorable is something I learned from our incredible guest, Linda Hollander in Episode 383 of Onward Nation. I encourage you to go back to Episode 383 to learn more about her recipe for helping business owners attract annual sponsorships of $10,000 to $100,000 – she shares the recipe in full transparency. Okay...so let’s dive a bit deeper into each ingredient. Here’s ingredient #1...does your content provide helpful, practical, and tactical advice and recommendations that when someone finishes listening, reading, or watching that they can go implement something? Are they smarter as a result of what you shared? Can they provide more value to their customers because of the time they invested in your content? Are they somehow able to move their business onward to that next level? If yes...then awesome. What this world doesn’t need is more yacking into a microphone or having a video camera follow you around an airport, drama, and drawing attention to yourself...none of that self-aggrandizing content adds value to your audience. So...get your plan together. Maybe it's a top-rated podcast, a video series on YouTube, maybe you want to write a book, or write long form articles for LinkedIn or in the media, maybe you have a passion to speak on stage, or host webinars, or a combination of these channels...whatever your passion is...create helpful, valuable content around that topic, and over time, you will build an audience. And as Dorie Clark shared with me during our encore interview in Episode 628... at the end of the day creating content — whether it’s a book — a podcast — or even a blog — showcases what you know. Dorie said to me, “Stephen, business owners need to focus on content creation. People always think, ‘Oh, there are so many blogs! There are so many podcasts!’ The truth is, too few people are leveraging the power of content creation because we think about content the wrong way. Content creation is not about how many people view your article. The goal of content creation is to create a piece that shows your credibility and makes it easier for a prospect to say ‘yes’ to working with you.” Dorie’s right. When you create a piece of content, Onward Nation, the number of people who see it doesn’t matter. What matters is whether or not you make the next sale — and it’s much more likely that you are able to do that when you can point a prospect to a piece of content that shows off how knowledgeable and credible you are. And all of that credibility and expertise helps you build an audience, which leads up into the second ingredient in the recipe of creating content that is worthy of monetization. Here’s ingredient #2: Multiple channels and properties to become more sponsorable Okay, Onward Nation – it isn’t enough to have great content. And it isn’t enough to consistently produce great content. Today’s top business owners are consistently creating great content...sharing it across multiple platforms...and then slicing and dicing the content into multiple media properties to increase their “sponsorability.” For example...let’s say you host your podcast. Awesome. Some additional opportunities to consider would be to take the transcripts from three of your very best interviews with influential thought leaders and use the content to create an eBook with an introductory letter from you on the inside cover. Now you have an additional asset that your audience will find helpful – and – you have an additional asset a sponsor may want to be part of for a fee. One of our Predictive ROI clients just sold a $12,000 sponsorship of his podcast to one of his vendors who also wanted to get in front of his audience – and – our client sold a $10,400 sponsorship to two other vendors for an eBook. Our team took 10 of his interviews...created an eBook that distilled the 10 best lessons from the interviews into an actionable plan...and our client sold the sponsorship of the eBook to the two vendors for $5,200 each. Or, say you teach workshops and you attract attendees from around the country. At your next workshop...record the entire event on video...the actual teaching sessions...the behind the scenes side conversations...the Q&A...the social functions if there is a dinner or reception. Record all of it. You then cut up the video and it becomes what you need to launch a video series on YouTube – and then you sell sponsorship of your YouTube channel to one of your vendors. And you transcribe the audio files from the entire workshop and the content can be transformed into webinar series that is sponsorable...or a book that is sponsorable...or podcast that is sponsorable. Or, say you are a software consultant and represent a number of different software vendors. What if you were to host your own podcast and your guest list was comprised of the top prospects for the software companies you represent? You then use your podcast as what I like to call, The Trojan Horse of Sales...because your podcast becomes your “All Access Pass” to your top prospects. They want to be a guest on your show...and you go to one of your vendors...and sell them the opportunity to underwrite or fund the entire program. They get the leads...you get the opportunity to create great content and build your audience...and your guests get exposure and the ability to share their thought leadership. A very solid win-win-win. You can go back to Episode 600 where I broke down the recipe for the Trojan Horse of Sales step-by-step. The final example I would like for you to take some time to consider is what Jay Baer, our outstanding guest for Episode 305, has done with his company, Convince and Convert. Jay is New York Times best selling author, has built a thriving consultancy in Convince and Convert, but they have also created a division of the company entitled Convince and Convert Media. Because Jay and his team have been able to build a large audience of business owners and marketers, brands who also want to sell to the same audience, now reach out to Jay’s media company to pay for access. It is an innovative approach. And here is a link to Jay’s media guide as well as the pricing his team charges for the various placements they offer brands. The key to success here is to not fall into the trap of thinking that you need to have a large audience to be successful in monetizing your content. You don’t need a million listeners. You don’t need 500,000 YouTube subscribers. You don’t. What you need is high quality content...shared on a consistent basis...with a growing audience who loves you...across multiple channels. In fact...the more narrow, or the more niche, you go with your audience – the better. Onward Nation, sometimes going narrow is what gives us the ability to create a nation of true fans faster and with less expense. Yes, it may take you months to make this transition from marketing as lead gen and a cost center to marketing as both...generating new customers and producing content that is “monetizable” – or it may take several years for you to reach this level of traction. But they key to remember is that it is possible – that you can begin looking at marketing through the correct end of the lens. So set the fear, the apprehension, the concerns aside. Yes it’s scary – I get that. But when you start, and when you make mistakes, and when you make adjustments, you will also create momentum. This is a long-term play – but it can’t be – if you don't ever start. So with that said...I want to say thank you. Thank you for being here...thank you taking some of your invaluable 86,400 seconds you have today and sharing them with me. Your time and attention are precious to me and I wish you the best of success in 2018. Please drop me a line at Stephen@predictiveroi.com and let me know what you thought of today’s solocast – thumbs up or thumbs down. I always want to know what you think so we can continue to get better and better and be of greater value to you and your team. We will be back tomorrow with another great episode with David Mattson from Sandler Training. You will not want to miss it. Until then...onward with gusto!

Because Jay is inherently lazy, he's by far the best person to offer advice on how you can transform yourself in the new year. All it takes is one tiny tweak to your routine--like walking a block out of the way or saying hello to a stranger.    So put down that long list you're making, give this episode a listen, and keep it simple. 

The Blackthorn Cocktail is a real puzzler. It's an example of another cocktail that has multiple versions, which is not that unusual, but in this case the resource we're using has the outlying recipe. The name of the cocktail sounds sinister but it's nothing more than a connection to a berry bush indigenous to the British Isles...a plant festooned with small plum-flavored berries commonly used to make a liqueur called sloe gin. Learning that I was excited because...plums...YUM! But in our book, the recipe uses no sloe gin, no sloe berries, not even any plums, yet is supposed to remind of plums...and it's not even (as far as we can tell) the original recipe for the cocktail that actually contained sloe gin. We can't find the recipe that's listed, but we did find several others, one containing sloe gin, and one containing Irish whiskey, which at least has a circuitous connection to blackthorn. So we're kind of at a loss as to why this cocktail appears as it does. We assume a reason; we just don't know what it is. But this drink definitely has some age, appearing in Harry Johnson's book in the late 19th century. The recipe we tried from Ted Haigh's book is as follows: 2 oz. gin 3/4 oz. Dubonnet Rouge 3/4 oz. Kirschwasser We all roundly disliked this drink. It looks beautiful, but it was unexpectedly harsh and not really very plummy at all. Generally speaking, we've decided that kirschwasser is a ruiner of drinks and we're anxiously awaiting the kirschwasser drink that doesn't taste like ass. Because Jay revealed the other two versions of the blackthorn, we also wanted to try those. The version of the blackthorn that contained the sloe gin was remarkably better. It tasted of fruit, though some of the tasting team preferred the sloe gin straight. The second alternate version was Irish whiskey and absinthe which everybody swooned over (though nobody reported any hallucinations as per Jay's story at the end of the history section)

Jay Van Beveren is living the American Dream 2.0. You might remember him from his stint on a podcast called 'Uncle Gamer Radio' or his current participation in 'Remember When'. Now his business card now reads "Project Manager, Promethium Marketing." Our discussion covers the success of 'Remember When', how his perspectives on the industry have changed with his current job and he offers up some details on latest pride of Promethium Marketing - Tweet Defense. Because Jay wouldn't have it any other way, there are plenty of tangents in this episode. I hope you can keep up with us. Enjoy.Tweet Defense is coming soon to the iTunes App Store, check it out here - http://www.tweetdefense.com/   Send your feedback to feedback@justtalkingpodcast.com   Feel free to subscribe to Just Talking on iTunes or add the RSS feed to your preferred bookmarking service.   Run Time - 1:05:14