Day 454 – Now the ball is mine

I am laying in bed as this may be my new blogging time of the day.

I will be getting up earlier for my new job and I just cannot see getting up at 2am is going to be beneficial for my health or that of my few readers. So I will fill you with my thoughts at the end of my day.

I found out this weekend that all of our new labels have been approved! that is good because we can move forward but, bad because that forward momentum now rests on my actions.

It is easy to call yourself an entrepreneur while any delays are outside of your control but. when it lies on you it is actual work. I read an article recently about how it is hip and cool to call yourself an entrepreneur. It is becoming respected like a Doctor of Lawyer. There is still a lot of doubt cast around the entrepreneurial title. No one looks at you when you go to med school and “hopes it all works out”, Nobody hears of you entering law at Harvard and Hopes you “make it”. Those are courses that we always expect to make it. Although it is with an extreme amount of debt.

Most look upon an entrepreneur as a risk taker only putting off the inevitable of getting a job. We look at things much different lately. We see the shortcomings of our relationship and work hard to align ourselves with those that can balance then.

Now I am here. I have approved labels and now i need to pull the trigger. I am ready!

We have a peach we need to perfect on a large run, White Lightning Corn Whiskey and secure the food hold of what we have created together.

Here is to the unknown and hoping the rats stay away!

 

Day 451 – 10 rules for being neighborly.

I have share a few times how lovely my neighbors are. Last night at family dinner we had another incident which birthed today’s blog. In the last neighborhood I lived in for several years, we all knew each other and talked quite a bit. We knew each other kids and watched out for each other. We had phone numbers of our neighbors and were friendly. I am still friends with a couple of them even though we do not live there anymore.

I have learned since moving into this new house that we had it all wrong in our old neighborhood. Very Wrong. This is the summary of what I have learned in the last 20 months.

I give you the Rock Ridge top 10 rules for being a neighbor.

1. Never knock on a neighbor’s door. Direct contact should be avoided. Seek alternative means of communication such as through the Home Owner’s Association.

2. When you have a grievance that merits contact, engage your neighbor’s minor children first.

3. Assert dominance early. Claim the fence between houses as your own and demand that nothing ever touch it.

4. Always mention what you do for a living during every encounter. Your neighbors need to know that you are important. Name drop the Mayor if possible.

5. Always address your neighbor by their proper title, therby showing status in the neighborhood. Like Homeowner, Renter, and perhaps landscaper if your HOA can afford such things.

6. If your new neighbors teenage children are being a bit too loud after 10 pm on a summer night. Be an asshole when they are trying to apologize. Establish dominance as soon as possible let them know that you will call the police and be sure to utilize rules # 4 and # 5.

7. If someone has the nerve to partially block the sidewalk with their vehicle while the are visiting one of your neighbors, leave dog poop on their windshield as a sign of your displeasure and a warning not to do it again.

8. When in the view of the public while washing your car or anything else that may force you outside, always smile and appear to be loving and perfect. Assume that your windows were closed and no one heard you yelling at your family.

9. When parking in the general on street parking located in front of the rental houses, be sure to take enough room so that it makes it difficult for anyone else to park around you. You will need almost a car length in front of and behind your 10 year old Acura.

10. After calling the police on a neighbor, be sure to smile and wave at them if they see you to throw off any suspicion that you are the one who may have called the police.

I am sure I may have missed a few more but there is no published set. We learn new ones on an almost regular basis.

I cannot wait to move in a few months when my lease is up. Maybe I could rent back my old house?

Day 450 – Sitting on nails

It is funny how everyone at the place I work right now dislikes their job and the place in general yet, they act surprised when they find out I am leaving.

I hear people complain about things all day long. They don’t make enough money or they are tired of being a temporary employee but, they do nothing about it. I talked to one guy who has been a temporary employee for over 2 years at $10 per hour. No raises, no benefits, and no promise of a permanent position. He likes to complain to anyone who will listen but, that is far as it goes.

It amazes me how little people will settle. What is even more amazing is how people will let someone else determine their worth. I believe that life will pay you exactly what you demand of it. There is a price to pay for what you ask and seek and there lies the problem.

If people are honest with themselves they will have to admit that the pain of doing something more is more unbearable that what they are going through now. If it was not, it would be easy for them to change. So they sit and complain and just take it.

I am thankful every day that I am not wired that way. I will try anything and rarely get scared. For me there is no greater pain than just settling for something.

Two men are sitting on a porch and there is a dog lying next to them just howling away. One man asks the dog’s owner what is wrong with the dog. “Oh he is laying on a nail” the other man says. The second man thinks for a second and then asks simply, “Why doesn’t he just get up and move?” The dog’s owner shrugs his shoulders and says, “I doesn’t hurt bad enough for him to move.”

Are you laying on a nail right now? Do you spend more time howling than actually doing something about it? Stop whining and make a change. Maybe it is a career nail. Maybe it is a financial nail or a relationship nail. You are the only one who can change it.

Day 449 – Are there any salesmen left?

We have some movement from the TTB! They rejected the White Lightning label. While that is not good it does mean that they are getting close. All we had to do was add Corn Whiskey to the front label so no big deal. I hope they get them all approved soon. It would be nice to get the White Lightning and the Peach Cobbler out soon!

The official list of winners from the San Francisco Spirit Competition will be released on April 4th and we can order graphics and stickers as soon as this Friday. I am very excited about the credibility this gives our brand.

We are looking for a sales person right now to help us really get a foothold in the places we have been approved in. Unfortunately a lot of the sales people we are talking to want all kinds of money up front and in retainers before they ever even do anything. I have been down this road before with “brokers” for Wired Waffles. We spent thousands of dollars on a few guys that never delivered one single sale. Not one. They  tout themselves as some miracle worker or your sales savior and end up choking at the first no they get. They begin to blame their lack of results on anything but themselves.

What happened to the days of Joe Girard and Zig Zigler?

I think that the only things some salesmen sell anymore is themselves and I am not buying. I have other things to pay for like swag and displays. As salesman should pay for himself right?

Day 448 – You like it! You really like it!

Back after 3 days!

Saturday was a long day but, one that I would do over and over. Walt Disney built an apartment over the fire station on Main street in Disney land. It is one of the first buildings as the entrances come together when people enter Disneyland. It was said the Walt used to look out and look at the guest’s faces as they saw down Main towards the castle. The smile and reaction on their faces was what Walt loved. It gave him a huge amount of satisfaction seeing people enjoy his creation.

When I am at a tasting event pouring Eve’s Apple Pie, I feel like Walt Disney. I wait for the look on everyone’s face as they taste our Apple Pie for the first time. The wows and the amazings are great to hear but, the look of enjoyment is what makes me do these events over and over. Saturday’s event at Snohomish on the Rocks, was another one of those events.

While we were sharing our Apple Pie with a few hundred people, there was something even more exciting going on 833 miles south in San Francisco. A few months ago we submitted Eve’s Apple Pie to the San Francisco World Spirit Competition to see how it fared among it’s competition.

The San Francisco World Spirits Competition, the largest, most influential international spirits competition in America, is judged by a prestigious panel of nationally recognized spirits experts. Judging is based on a blind, consensual procedure, ensuring competitive integrity as it remains the nation’s most respected spirits competition.

This year there were over 1500 spirit  entries into dozens of categories. We entered Eve’s Apple Pie into the flavored Whiskey Class and won a Bronze medal! Now it is one thing to like and believe in your own product and creation. It is great when friends enjoy it and tell you that it is good. It is Fantastic when you see how good it is in the eyes of strangers when they taste it for the first time. It is unbelievable that when put in front of the most discernible spirit pallets in the world that we get recognized!

Yes . . .  it is really that good!

We were notified via email Sunday night at the close of the judging. They will be posting the official results on April 4th and we will be celebrating of course! We are proud of this accomplishment and humbled by the praise of our peers. I am excited to order some stickers to put on the bottles showing off our accomplishment.

Thank you all who support us, this is your win too!

 

Day 444 – Another State!

It is Friday. I am supposed to be all excited right? The weekend is here!

Well the weekend is just a reminder to me of how fast the week went and I still have things to do for tomorrows tasting event. It will be a long day out at the farm with some of the best Distilleries that Washington has to offer.

There is a VIP session and two general sessions that go until 9pm. We always do well at these events and especially the ones so close to home. Lots of familiar faces and friends will be coming through.

This will also be a great event for us to tease the two new products we have coming out. We will have bottles of the new Peach Cobbler and the White Lightning along with the new Apple Pie branding to show everyone.

Oh! Yesterday we were issued an order number in Oregon! Yes that is another state we are in. Oregon is sweet because it is a controlled stated. Everything goes through the State Liquor Control Board and it is not easy to get in. Now that we are approved and have an order number we will be marketing directly to the stores to bring Eve’s in. Once we have a few stores that bring it in, the state will put a program in place to put it in all of the stores. That is over 300 new placements! Still a lot of work to do for that but we are in the game now in Oregon!

The Goal for this year is to be in 10 states total by the end of the year. We are now in 4 so almost halfway there. We are pretty close in a couple other states and I really think the new branding will be a big win for us. It addresses the concerns that were shared with us and stays true to what we originally designed.

I hope we do not have to wait too long for the TTB to approve the new design so we can move forward on this whole thing and get a couple new products out sooner than later!

Day 443 – Thursday

Thursdays always surprise me.

It is the downhill slide of the week and the day that I look at and go into panic over the things I wanted to get done for the week. Today is a little different because I have begun counting the days until my new job.

I am looking at my calendar differently than before because the evenings will be pretty much gone for me, Getting up so early I will have to ,in turn, go to bed early. Late will now be 9:00 so I will have to change things that I reserved for the evening and be very careful with commitments that go into my witching hour.

I found myself at drama practice for Easter last night really thinking about this. My blog will most likely change to the evenings as well. I do not see getting up even earlier to write. Most likely it will be the last thing I do before I go to sleep. I will most be tapping away on my keyboard while Amy is pinteresting next to me. Ahhhh an old couple in bed at 630 -700. We know how to party!

Snohomish on the rocks is this Saturday and it will be one full long day. Setup is around 10am and it will go until about 10pm. I wish I had the new products to roll out at this event but they will all just have to be teased by Mock ups of the bottles for White Lightning and Peach Cobbler. I will have to figure out a way to capture their information so I can let them know about the new stuff when it happens.

Still waiting to hear back from the TTB on the new branding and labeling. Once we have it we can get started on the White Lightning and then make a batch of peach. The peach will have to be sent off and tested for proof just like the Apple Pie. The moonshine is easier and will probably be the first to get done.

Still trying to figure out if a move to Oregon is going to be the best thing and how to pay for it if we do decide to move. That will require debt and/or more partners which I am not a fan.

In the meantime we need to find a paid Sales rep with experience to step up and help with larger accounts and distributorship. If only our distributor did what I thought we paid them for. What a racket. They are more like order takers than sales reps. Unless you dangle money in front of them, they will not know of the existence of your product in the catalog, let alone educate themselves on it and promote it.

Day 442 – The new gig

This morning has already flown by. I love how fast things go when you are in a jam session and really focused. I got my morning to do list done and quickly!

So just wanted to share a bit about the job I got. I have been offered a sales position for Aramark in their uniform division. I am pretty excited about it for a couple of reasons. First of all I am glad to get out of the toxic environment I am currently in. When I made the decision to go back to work it was to make ends meet and get rid of the stress of not having money to pay our bills. I was hoping for a simple job that I would enjoy and not get too involved in. I was looking for a fair trade of time for dollars. What I found was too costly on my attitude. The culture at this place was nothing positive to be kind.

This job will allow me to do what I am good at and enjoy. I will be out among different people and it will provide the security and benefits I was looking for in the first place. It will also provide time for Amy and I to focus on some sales things that have been slacking as of late with Eve’s.

I guess me getting up early in the morning has gotten me ready for this too because. By now I would have been at work for about 2 hours already. I will be deep into Amy’s world soon which means 7 o’clock bedtimes for this guy.

When you get up at 3am are you really a morning person or just a night owl that takes an evening nap?

Day 441 – Mastermind Night!

Last night was our first Mastermind meeting and it was a thing to behold.

We met for the first time a few weeks ago to discuss vision for the group and some basic structure. We had a meal and started to get to know each other. I am the common thread in the group but, some of the members are acquaintances at least. It is a group of people that I am most excited about being with. Each person brings something unique and valuable to the table to offer.

I have read about the Mastermind for several years and thought of trying to put one together for almost as long. I understood the concept mentally but, I never really got it until last night. Now I find myself wishing I would have done this years ago.

So the basic concept was for one member to bring a challenge to the group for discussion. To “tap into” the Mastermind, if you will. The idea is to get everyone in the group thinking and sharing on the same subject for the benefit of the one seeking knowledge. Now, we have all seen the power of this before in any brainstorming session. Once the stream is open it begins to flow faster and faster until it is like a flash flood. One idea spawns another and yet another. Rabbit trails of thought are uncovered and things that were never even considered are brought into light.

Imagine that that brainstorming session was not about ways to raise money for your daughter’s Girl Scout troop, or how to reduce costs in the mail room, but something personal that will affect your life.

Last night one of our members tapped in to the Mastermind to seek help making a decision about what to do about a piece of real estate. I watched as this “brainstorming” started to happen and the Mastermind went into action. It was pretty awesome and I was not even the one seeking the information. I worried that 30 minutes may not be enough time for someone to get enough information to assist them from the group but, I think it was almost too much time. The amount of information that came out was incredible.

I am sure you have heard the saying, “you don’t know what you don’t know.”? That is how I felt last night and just an observer and contributor. By tapping into a free thinking group of people there were thoughts and ideas brought up that had not even been considered. I am not sure the member asking, was not,expecting such an awesome amount of questions and ideas to think about and consider as he makes a decision.

I think the night was a success and I cannot wait for the next one. I think we are really on to something awesome!

Day 440 – So busy I forgot it was the weekend

Kind of in a fog this morning wondering where the weekend went.

Learning to truly relax is a skill I long to hone. The most successful people I know have this down to an art form and actually schedule rest time. They put it in their calendar and stick to it.

I know that seems a bit weird and extreme but how else do we really expect to get rest? There is always something to do. Chores and projects fill our time. Even when I am just sitting watching TV, it does not feel relaxing.

Time needs to be scheduled to actually block out everything and actually relax. Don’t let anything interrupt it. I hate sitting here on Monday thinking to myself, “Did I actually get to relax and recharge this weekend?”

I think I would need to remind myself that this is relax time. This is time I have scheduled to just relax and do something restful. Maybe a mid afternoon nap or a walk. Okay I have a great idea, let’s go back to Friday and I can try it!

If only that were true. I have a busy weekend coming up. We have the Snohomish on the Rocks tasting event and it is a long Saturday for sure. There will definitely be some napping scheduled for Sunday.