Okay.

So we had a manufacturing license.

We had our tasting room in Greeley that had seen a lot of success.

And so pretty quickly, like within a few months of opening, I was like, we're going to open up another tasting room.

And every new business I opened, I was always searching for another tasting room location.

Okay.

And it was always like I want to try to find another spot and had some spots I really liked that fell through.

And was the fact that it was supposed to be like a restaurant plus a distillery a problem?

I have no clue how it works, but I'm sure you're going to share what are the challenges there, right? How did you sell your first bottle? How did you sell your first hundred bottle? And how did you sell your first million wine? Sure.

Yeah, yeah.

So that's a great question.

So at the school I went to, one of the things they talked about that was really important is you want to own your backyard.

And when it comes to our distillery and our industry, the importance of owning the city you're in, the state you're in, before this massive attempt to really break out into multiple states and to distribute more widely.

And the reason for that's several fold.

One is you never want to stress production too early.

What did you do differently? How did you convince them?

What Could you share a couple of insights about the people aspects of it that maybe they could pick up and say, you know what, I could put that in place tomorrow and make a difference in the people that I do have currently with

me? Yeah, so I'll give you a couple things.

One is...

When it comes to staff and a lot of small business owners, they're a staff of one and they may they may not have a large staff or whatnot.

But I started with a staff of six and now I have about 40 people that work for me.

And so I've learned a lot of those leadership lessons in terms of that along the way.

And here's the thing I would tell you is as quickly as you can trust your staff to do the job.

for

pub you're getting drunk in pubs just because you wanted to experience the authentic culture

I just want it to be a raging European drunk for one week.

But the thing I loved about the pubs is it was all about the experience of the person across the table from you.

You know what I mean? And if you've ever been to a pub, their food is...

is mediocre like it's nothing you write home about fish and chips is great i love it but they give you these gross peas on the side and like it's just not like you know if you're thinking about like a fine cuisine like it's it's okay the beer that they're most known for in london is flat beer it's called a cask ale beer which is crazy like it's literally flat beer which for somebody that gets a little gassy with beer it's it's uh it works out great for me but uh But like all I have to say is like the food, specifically the food experience, you order at the counter service, you order at the counter at every pub in London.

And like the food experience isn't great, but like nobody cares there because they're there for the people across the table from them.

Like they are experiencing restaurants where restaurants were made to experience, which is a chance for you to connect with the person across the table from you to enjoy a conversation, to have fun.

never the

So what did that teach you about leadership that money generally cannot teach?

That was probably one of the biggest lessons I took away from my career in ministry going into business was how important it is to build a culture where people are motivated to work, where they're motivated to reach a higher goal, where they're motivated to work as a team and accomplish something they couldn't accomplish as an individual.

And to your point, so when I was working in ministry, I was in charge of the music team.

I was in charge of the tech team, which handled like lights and video and sound mixing.

I was in charge of two other volunteer teams.

One was the security team.

We were a pretty large church and had a security team.

However, you know, if we can share.

You tell me.

Yeah, I mean, let me give you the full background.

So I was working as a pastor.

I did that for 15 years and was kind of feeling this, just was the passion for it.

It kind of dwindled a little bit for me.

And meanwhile, I had this Napa Valley experience.

I loved every second of it.

You make that wow, right? It makes so much more difference than in a lot of professions when you're dealing with foods, spirits, wine, et cetera.

How did you build out your brand? Where did Four77 come from?

It's actually kind of a, a wild story.

So, uh, Four77 was not our original name, and our original name was actually called Tower 56.

And so I'm born and raised Southern California, I'm a big Southern California guy.

My family actually owned a, a house on the beach in Newport Beach, California.

My grandmother lived there my entire life growing up, and we've got a very tight-knit family.

I've got, like, seven cousins that are essentially like brothers to me.

Oh, wow.

But what are all the capital investments that need to be considered and have to be put in play to get a distillery off the ground?

Sure.

It, it all depends on what you wanna do, and to your point, there's, not only is there more than one way, there's probably a million ways to skin the cat here, and this is where it could get really tricky.

So my original business plan looked somewhere between 600,000 and $700,000 of investment that I needed, capital that I needed to make it happen.

And I'll tell you that my inheritance was around $100,000.

I'll be real honest on the numbers here.

So I had about $100,000 in the bank.

I guess why, first and foremost, would you have maybe just gone with creating the brand and outsourcing it, as opposed to going through with the manufacturing side? What are the pros and cons there?

Mm-hmm.

Because there is no paycheck.

And so you have to be able to create a culture where people are motivated, they're excited, they're fired up, they're willing to give you their best.

Um, and it was interesting when I transitioned into business, now I have all these employees that are paid, but one of the things I realized very quickly is that, uh, there's not a whole lot of difference between a volunteer and a paid employee in that just because they're collecting a paycheck doesn't mean that they're gonna be motivated to be the best version of themselves for you and for your business and for your brand.

And so my ability to create culture where people feel valued, where people are excited, where people want to represent you or represent the mission at a very, very high level, has really helped me to lead, uh, my teams, which started very small.

You know, we first opened, there was about four people that worked for me, and now I'm up to about 40 between all my businesses.

And I don't always get it right, and not everybody loves working for me, and not everyone is doing their absolute best for me, but I do feel like I've created a place where people that, that work for me have a higher level of motivation to give their best energy and their best effort to represent my brand.

Mm-hmm.

They will say, you need deliverance, and you have been possessed already.

I promise, Henry, I'm not possessed.

I'm a good guy.

Okay, so which chapter feels most personal to you in your book? Man, I'd say there's two that I love the most.

Chapter six is called the chapter I didn't want to write.

And it's about the, you know, I'm very personal about my life.

I mean, I'm one that, you know, that my closest friends and family know what's going on with me.

How have you balanced entrepreneurship with being a husband and a father? Well,

Ah

... no, you know, I, that, just joking there.

You know, I had been doing what I was doing for 15 years, and I loved it.

I was a, a music pastor, played music in churches, and something that I was very passionate about.

I loved what I was doing.

But really, it, it, it was a passion that was building inside of me that, that prompted me to make a change.

And the reality is, as much as I enjoy what I was doing, I had this, this deep-seated desire to do something different, and fell in love with the alcohol industry.

So, um, looking back now, was there any defining moment when you knew leaving ministry was the right decision?