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Last Updated: September 2, 2024

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119: "I have a Distillery, you have a Harrier…do you want to fly some bourbon on it?" Collaborating with fellow veteran businesses with Scott Sanders

When trying new ideas, Admiral, Distiller and Patriot Scott Sanders will often say, "I don’t know, but we’re going to try." Despite the big budgets Scott was used to in the military, he had to learn how to have a lean startup mentality as an entrepreneur. He shares how Tobacco Barn Distillery began, why he chose to produce bourbon, his seamless transition to post-military life, being a lifelong learner, and much more.

Connect with Scott Sanders at https://www.tobaccobarndistillery.com/ or email Scott at scott@tobaccobarndistillery.com

Check out his feature, "Veterans join forces to create bourbon at 700 mph" on CNBC from Veterans Day 2020 at https://youtu.be/f9erSxvAAW4

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Jen Amos 0:00

All right. Hey everyone. Welcome back to another episode of the award winning podcast show holding down the fort. I am your Creator and co host, Jenn aImost. And of course, as always, I have my amazing co host with me, Jenny Lynn stroupe Jennylyn Welcome back. Glad to be here today. Yes. And we're excited because we have an incredible guest joining us today who happened to have met his spouse in Virginia Beach, kind of like you did, you know, Jennylyn. So I think this would be really fun to kind of have that commonality. But let me go ahead and introduce him to you all. Now. He likes to describe himself as Admiral distiller and patriot, Scott Sanders, you can learn more about him now by visiting his website tobacco barn distillery.com. We'll get more into a story. But before we do, Scott, welcome to the show.

Speaker 1 0:45

It's good to be here, Jan and Jenny Lynn, it's good to be with a couple of great people here.

Jen Amos 0:51

Yeah, absolutely. And I have to say that I was really captivated by the video that was featured of you and Colonel art Nalls on CNBC. So let's go ahead and open up with that and how you guys have this very interesting relationship with bourbon and jets.

Speaker 1 1:10

Actually, it's more than just bourbon in Ted's, it's bourbon and other veteran businesses. So we always collaborate coordinate, and we'll get into more the business we get into. So I have a distillery and a friend of mine owns Harrier jets, which is kind of wacky unto itself. And he was at a farmers market one time and we sell a rum that's aged on the USS Constellation. It's a museum ship up in Baltimore Harbor. It's the last all sale worship with the US Navy, because it moves their rubber in there. So it gives it a smoother flavor really, really good. And so he said, and he got a couple bottles that he said, Hey, Scott, you know, I own a Harrier. Do you want to put some bourbon? And I said, Art, you know, that's so crazy. Let's do it. And so we probably it took us two years and 10 months to pull off. We had COVID we had two federal bureaucracies. We had the the FAA, we had the local area. There's a lot of bureaucracies, but we fought we just flew it on August 28. We called it 700 mile an hour bourbon, and I had several flight test engineers from Boeing saying, You are never getting that Harrier jet over 700 miles. And I said, Well, you know what we might not. But is for a charity. It's for Semper Fi, and America's fun. So I don't care what we get to it's called 700 mile an hour bird. So we actually got to about 637 miles an hour, we did drop the barometric pressure by three inches of mercury. So there's a lot of pressure going on in there. But the most significant thing, I think that will impact the flavor is we had an awesome Rolls Royce Pegasus engine that was putting out 140 decibels of sound and noise vibrations for an hour that was three feet away from those barrels. It's so that's going to change the texture and what's going on inside those barrels. It's really gonna nobody's ever done it before. So we'll say we haven't tasted it yet. We're hoping to release around Veterans Day, but November 11, and we'll see how it goes.

Jen Amos 3:31

Well, yeah, I was actually curious about that. That was gonna be my follow up question. Like oh, so did your very expensive and as mentioned in the video, idiotic experiment, work, and now I'm intrigued to know that you guys are going to actually find out on Veterans Day.

Speaker 1 3:46

Yeah. And we haven't tasted it yet. But we know the key fact it didn't leak. So we were a little nervous on that. But everything worked out. Well, everything. Because we're engineer we you know, we did a flight test prep on it. So everything worked out pretty good. The problem we're having now is this supply chain. I don't have bottles yet. I've talked to a lot of other small business. Everybody's having a hard problem getting boxes, cardboard bags, glasses, I've never done get bottles. I think they're coming at the end of October. So I think it's gonna

Jen Amos 4:20

Yeah, you know, I think this is great. I thought I check in with any. Let's see if you had any initial thoughts.

Speaker 2 4:24

I mean, that sounded like a super fun trip. I kind of wish I was on it. That's really what I was thinking.

Speaker 1 4:29

Well, it was a lot of fun. Because of COVID. We had about 100 people that were there at the airport. It was a lot of fun. I mean, it's it a little County Airport, huh. You know, people can walk to the runway and watch the day. Kind of cool. It's one of those type of places where a lot of excitement. We had a chase jet. I have another veteran business and they do 3d camera work. So we put a 3d camera in the cockpit, right back here. behind the seat, so when we released the bottle, we're going to have a little QR code. So when you when you do that on your iPhone, you'll see a little video and you'll be like you're in the cockpit of the Harrier during the flight, kind of

Jen Amos 5:14

Oh, that's so cool. Wow, I love that, you know, as odd as this is, I love it, I think it's very attention grabbing. And all of this, because, as you hinted earlier, is a way for you to promote veteran business owners. And so tell us a little bit about that. I mean, as a veteran now or while you're in active duty, did you ever think you would become a business owner today?

Speaker 1 5:39

No, I, I never thought of it that way. Once I retired, it took a while for this to kind of take see, but what I did, I got up with some other entrepreneurs. And because being in the Navy doesn't teach entrepreneurship, and teach how to be a small business owner, you have to have a lean startup mentality. I mean, in the Navy, you have big budgets. But in a lean startup, you have no budget. So you have to learn how to operate that way. So we took about three years, I have two partners that are not not one is He's former Marine One is not. And so we come from different places. All business oriented. So we wrote a business plan, and then you keep rewriting your business plan, because the first time it's not very good, but it's the process of going through that and do an industry survey. And the biggest thing is not getting too infatuated with your idea. Because it might be a good idea, even though you love it, you know, and so we took three years, we I call it stress tested our business plan. So we made sure that it wasn't just what we liked the market out there. And then so after three years, we decided to pull the trigger.

Jen Amos 6:54

I appreciate you saying that, you know, you can't really be too attached to your ideas. Because, you know, working with my husband, who is a veteran, especially in the last handful of years, I've had a lot of heartbreaking moments of ideas that we had to move on from just because we're like, oh, even though we think it's great, the market could care less about it, you know, and so I really have a thick skin. Yes, absolutely. And more importantly, Scott, what I really like, that you hinted at that I think is good for our listeners is you didn't do it alone, you know, you have a team, you have business partners to help you and to, you know, flesh this out and execute it and test it and, you know, update it. And so I think that is a key as well, because I think for whatever reason, even though military life teaches you to do things together, there's something interesting that happens, I think, in the civilian life for veterans often feel alone. And so I do like the fact that you decided to partner up with other veterans, you know, to make this business possible.

Speaker 1 7:51

Yeah. And I think that's something that does flow through about I work and I'll talk about some of the other veteran businesses we work with, because there's a lot of there's no rhyme or reason to him, we always try to find a way. And worst thing we do we try it once. And if it doesn't work, then we don't do it again. You know, when you're doing a business, you don't want to get, you know, it's kind of like you don't want anybody else to tell you your baby's ugly type of thing. So you have to be hard nosed about that. But then once you're in business and doing things, just try something, and they're almost the reverse when you Okay, let's try it once we'll do a minimum viable product to see if it works. And if it does work, we'll leave it we'll figure out how to scale up or do it there. And if it doesn't work, okay, no harm, no foul. You just tried it once tested.

Jen Amos 8:39

Yeah, absolutely. I know that you mentioned that the Navy doesn't necessarily teach you how to be an entrepreneur. But do you feel like there's anything that did translate, you know, from your service to the business that you do today?

Speaker 1 8:51

Jen Amos 9:47

Yeah, absolutely. You know, Jennylyn I know that often as a military spouse, you often run into a lot of military spouse entrepreneurs, but yourself are one of the people I like to consider very fortunate to have employment But in addition to that, though, like the work that you do is about in a way it is entrepreneurial, because you're helping the company work for expand. I mean, open up different clinics in different areas. So I'm curious if you have any thoughts about, you know, what that's like to help, you know, the company work for to expand?

Oh, yeah. I mean, it's interesting, listening to Scott talk about, like what the military teaches. I mean, we're staring down the last couple of years of my husband's active duty time, and I'm going, huh, what is he going to come out with? Where do we go from here? You know, because, like you said, I mean, in some ways, I do know that as an outreach coordinator for a large organization, like I have to be entrepreneurial, and spirit because I'm constantly going out looking for new partners and new ways to get the word out. And in other ways, like that word freaks me out. To know in because I come from, like, a very structured background, like, I have a master's in elementary education, we use a lesson plan and books. And it's all very, like, here's what you teach. And here's how you know. So to move into, like the mental health field where there's still a lot of stigma, but a lot of my job is around breaking that stigma, and like getting the word out about the good services we offer, you know, has taken more of that entrepreneurial spirit that I didn't realize I had, and I'm grateful to be in a space where like, that is becoming such a huge thing in the military spouse world. I'm so excited to see like the amount of military spouse and veteran businesses like popping up and doing well, I think it speaks highly of our community as a whole.

Yeah, absolutely.

But I'd like to mention something on mental health and stigma around that. You know, I've seen a lot of that from PTSD to spouse and other things. And we're not there yet. But I think we're getting better. And I think that's one of the things that I think the military, but you know, we're not afraid to kind of go bring up topics that are hard to discuss about. And that is

absolutely my hope.

This all touched us all. We're not there yet. But I think I think we're we've made great progress.

I would agree just in the time that my husband's been in service. And we've done the things that we've done as a family, I've seen a large shift, and I'm continually hopeful that we continue to shift to even better practices within the military community.

Yeah, wonderful. I want to talk about sort of your passion, Scott, when it comes to working with other veteran business owners, and then we can also get into like the tips in to startup.

Yeah, I have consciously gone out of the way to partner up with other veteran businesses. And a lot of the time it's the spouse because the veterans got in. So like, there's a great company near me now. It's called Semper savage. And I know

them Yes, I know. Yeah. dressings. Yes, they've been. Oh my gosh, okay, go on.

Aren't they awesome? Yes, they take a huge bourbon barrel and put their balsamic vinegar in it. Yeah. And you know, you have to let it age Rob, but it pulls the bourbon out of the staves. And they've created this really cool product. And so again, getting to the Hey, try it and see if it works. So they did it a little wonky the first time. Because, I mean, they were, they did a video, they're in their basement, there's plastic sheets all over the place, and you're putting stuff in. And so I think they made a badge just to see if it worked. And you know, it didn't take six or nine months to do it. And oh my gosh, is that taste good? It's Oh, yeah. It just does a really good flavor. But their process and the way they made it, you can't sell it. So you had you know, because it wasn't in a commercial kitchen in that environment type of thing. So they said, Hey, Scott, can we get another barrel? So I said, Yeah, we're gonna, so we're gonna do this again. So somebody's just helping other people out and, and they're willing to experiment and see what works. And if it doesn't work, they never would have made any, you know, yeah. And so that's what I was talking about going there. There's another we're a farm. So we grow the corn. We make our bourbon and whiskey from. So we have there's a lot of veteran farmers here and veteran farmers, there's not a lot of them. And so some of them grow stuff. I got a friend who he does organic vegetables and some berries and stuff and other one does go to chickens. And then there's other people that have pigs and you make bacon from pigs and that goes great with bourbon. So he got a USDA approved recipe to make bourbon bacon.

Oh, wow

makes it into it, you have to take it to a USDA certified place. He has this recipe. Until now we have bourbon bacon has our logo on there and in Bowling Green farm on it. It's it's awesome. That's it. So sometimes I'm not sure what we're doing. Okay, cuz I don't know anything about pigs in slaughterhouses.

You know what I like about hearing you talk, Scott is it gets me to think about how I've really approached our show here at holding on the four where, you know, I want to collaborate with people I have good chemistry with, you know, and so like Jenny Lynn, initially, when she wanted to become a co host, I was like, Oh, well, let's see how this goes. And luckily, it's worked out for us here we are like a year and a half later, you know, doing this show together. And what we do is we naturally bring up people in our network to be on the show, like I bring on past guests, she brings people in her community. And I think it just really made such good conversation on conversations on the show. And so all that being said, I like how you, you know, work with veterans out, and more importantly, you figure it out together. You know, it's it's very much like, Oh, you guys seem cool, why would I support you? Let's just see what we can make a bit. And so if you are bourbon bacon later, and even working with Senator Savage, I think is amazing. And I think speaks to the spirit of our military community of supporting one another.

And we have a myriad of businesses. So it's, they're not just there's a veteran run Bed and Breakfast Neris that we work things. If I was looking down on my list over here, there's an oyster guy who he, he farmed oysters. And in fact, with you, you just gave me a great idea. Jack, I'm going to add you in this list. So okay. So we're in agriculture. And again, there's not many veteran farmers, it's a very, very small minority. And so we're getting ready to put in a proposal to do co branding, within the agriculture sector of for other veteran business because it's about promoting other veteran businesses, right. And one of the pieces it doesn't have to aren't worthy agriculture. And because we grow the corn, we make the bourbon. But then it's how do you co brand with other people. And one of the things in there, I saw from a past recipient, was they did a podcast. So maybe, I'll get Jen and Jenny Lynn, you'll be my partners in this. And we'll do some veteran podcasts. It won't be every you know, it'd be once in a while, that type of thing there because that's how these things kind of pop up. And so I just think these okay, hey, this might work out here. Right? First of all, I have to pass Jenny lens approval is to be a co host. once a quarter. You can decide after you can decide after this if you want to have me on.

Yeah, so far. So good. You're passing the test? That's fine, sir. Yes, but I just have to know like, why bourbon? Like out of all the things like why bourbon, you showed us a picture offline that obviously our listeners can't see. But me and after all those years in the Navy, why corn and bourbon,

because it's the American spirit by law. So for those who don't know, Bourbon has to be made a minimum of 51% corn. So it's an American grain. It give me more than that, but it has to be minimum 51. And then the rest can be just has to be a cereal, grain. rye, wheat, barley, something like that. And then the, and then just water and a new charred barrel every time so it's the purest expression of a whiskey. And you can't put any coloring flavoring additives nonsense in there. So it's, you know, it's a very pure product. If you go to Scotland, they have scotch, so that has to be made in Scotland. Bourbon has to be made in America. Irish whiskey has to be made in Ireland, you know, Japanese whiskey, so everybody has their own thing. This is ours. And I used to be a Scotch drinker. Back they still in. There's nothing wrong with scotch. But the picture I showed you both before when I was commanded the international counter piracy task force out Samaya. I used to hand out bottles of bourbon. And because the dirty little secret is the Navy's a bunch of cheapskates, and I would hand out, you know, they gave me a ship's ball cap or something. So I'd be handing these out. And I'd be meeting an ambassador or somebody may be handing me something out of a museum or the Ming Dynasty, you know, so I'm getting this very expensive gift, and I have a ship's pocket. So you know, the USS Anzio and so I was completely embarrassed. So we likely had a port call. And I went into just out of my own pocket. I bought three cases of bourbon. And I was the most popular date and the Gulf of Aden for sick no As I was telling you, I've been on Chinese warships three times. Not many American admirals have. And I'm nobody special is just because Admiral Wang, the bottle of bourbon. I mean, I've been on Russian ships. I've been everybody from NATO. I mean, I was on a different chip probably every five days. But also, it's like good food, good drink good wine. It's a great way to start a conversation. I got so much cold out of my international partners, fighting piracy. It ended up hoping the mission. I mean, it really did. So my meager investment in three cases of bourbon really paid off. I mean, we did we it worked out awesome. I met people got things done. I talked about Admiral Wang all the time. I mean, China and the US don't have the best relationships. And we, you know, back then with but we're fighting piracy. So it's about keeping the waterways safe for merchant merit, and those type of things. He would launch helicopters for me, I got him to do it, you know, which nobody thought they would do. I mean, so it's about sharing. I did share bourbon in the other thing I shared was chocolate chip cookies. Everybody loves Chuck. And if you ever if you're ever on a Navy ship, I mean, a mess cokes on Navy ships are awesome. And if you say, I say hey, I would like to share some of your chocolate chip cookies with the Chinese Advil. Can you make me a really good Batchi you'll get some really good cookies. We better cookies and ibird

Bourbon and chocolate chip cookies. I

love it. He's right, though those yeses on ships. They are legit. Some of the best cookies ever had came out of the CS shop on USS George HW Bush.

And we created a trend. So people would they wanted to keep up with what because after a while, these gifts that their nation they weren't as good because I'd give them bourbon and chocolate chip cookies. So now they had it. So from the Pakistanis one day, they sent a helicopter with I don't know how many big you know, four foot tray it took up the entire backseat of the hell kind of chicken Bahrani. Oh my gosh. And that it's probably fed 50 People in my crew. And then and then we would get the Japanese ships. I taught them how to fish for yellowfin tuna and the Gulf of Aden. And I gave them three fishing poles from the MWR. So we did that and they returned, you know, some of the best Japanese food I ever ate. I don't know what it was. I don't think any of it was cooked. But boy, was it delicious.

I love it. so genuine. Does that answer your question as to why bourbon does

I love that it's the All American thing. I mean, please, like we are all American, red, white, and blue threw up all over our house as they come. So, you know, we love baseball, we love chocolate chip cookies. And I love that you really went into like the American entrepreneurial spirit. I think that's super fun.

You know, at the time, reflecting back, I think I was being entrepreneurial at the time. I didn't think that was. So I think being in the military, no matter what you're doing. There's some kind of muscle memory that you develop in the military that is entrepreneurial. It's just you know, you're not taught you're not taught that that its way but that's how it works.

So was it a hard shift, though, to go from being an admiral doing all the you know, shaking hands and kissing babies, you were doing the Gulf of Aden to you know, now being like a gentleman farmer and distilling bourbon. Like, how did that look for you? And what was your like, family shift? Like, as I said, we're a couple years out from like shifting out of this and I know that comes in Great.

Well, I think what I did not have a hard shift is I've been married almost 40 years. So my wife never got caught up and all the old Admiral stuff. So I was always just that guy over there anyways, so when I took off the uniform, I was just Jane's husband type of thing, you know, that type of thing. So that was an easy shift. And that wasn't hard to it's kind of like when I stopped flying because I flew off carriers for a while you miss it, but then a you can't go back there and so you retire and you're missing but you can't go back and it's you know, it just one of those things didn't work out. I'm very happy now it I never had a big problem or issue leaving it because you know, it's coming. It's it's not like it. I was very fortunate. I mean, I was a two star ad Well, I've got nothing to complain about. I mean, once I once I got selected for my second star, I was a reservist. So I know my retirement. There is no threes. You know, okay, yeah, life is good. I've got three years, that's great.

I love that. It's like you, you know, when you've sort of hit the ceiling, and now you can anticipate, like your transition. And I like hearing that. Because, you know, I think very often when we talk to guests on our show, there's always that kind of looming gloom of transition, but I'm happy to hear that, at least for you, like you knew you knew it was around the corner.

Well, and you're gonna have transition sometime. So hurry

up and do it. I love it. Dude,

I got offered to stay on for another year or two, just the way they work billets within the Navy, I could go to the joint staff. So I'd be off the Navy listening, go on the joint, let's go. I don't want to go to the I've been fired for better jobs than that. I don't want to go to the Joint Staff.

That's funny. Oh, my goodness, Scott, you seem like a very happy person. At least seem very grateful, you know, and appreciative of your life. And, you know, just hearing the story about I mean, first of all, how you've been married for 40 years. Congratulations, that is older than me, just so you know, my age.

You're by the age of my daughter

33. Yeah,

she's 34.

Well, thank you for assuming I was in my 30s I often get mistaken for my young 20s or something, which I don't I don't mind that either. But I think it's amazing that you're in this great place in life. And I think this is to me why you're so eager and willing to work with veteran business owners and create things and as you go, because there's just that, I don't know, it just seems that there's that spirit of gratitude for your life that you can do that. And you can kind of just show up as you are and fail forward, in a sense, working with other veteran business owners, and it's something that I appreciate and admire in hearing your story. And

it's, you know, you shouldn't be afraid to fail. So I mean, budgets in a controlled environment. So being a carrier that we didn't want to fail. So you know, but you always do things in a closely controlled thing. I was, I'm usually pretty successful, at least getting people that want to try something. But I had a couple weeks ago, I was at a market. Shoot, a lady was from Virginia Beach. She's a military spouse, and she did quilting. She had really good she had all these table runners and sits up. I said, Hey, do you have any bourbon? For a birthday? Themed fabric? Maybe we could do something with that. And I'd maybe I just didn't explain it correct. She didn't seem interested in bourbon, I don't know. Well, you know, because she can make a bunch of, you know, I mean, people like, I mean, people like stuff with bourbon, I'm just way it is. And I have people in fact, if any of people who listened to your podcast because this so thank you, too, for what you're doing. This is a great forum. And it's a great podcast. And it's a testament that you've been on here, you know, 15 months. So thank you very much for doing. If people have an idea that they want to collaborate with a bourbon distillery, just get in touch with me.

I love it. So in addition to everything we shared so far, Scott, are there any other tips you want to give to veteran business owners, or aspiring veteran business owners? I want to add?

Yeah, yeah, there's probably a few in here that the first one that comes to mind is to be a lifelong learner. Again, the military teaches a lot of thing, but not in the structure of an entrepreneur, not in the structure of a startup. So you need to go to I mean, I paid to go to social media training, because I'm an old guy. I don't know anything about Facebook, but I'm not ashamed. I'm the oldest one in the class, by the 30 years, you know, but you got to learn about this stuff. You know, you have to see how does this work? What's the process to make it happen? And then, so you still need to keep learning all the time. And things do change. So you can't just pick it up on your own. You need other people to help you. You need to go to some formal training and you need to experiment you need to try things out and not worry about if it fails. I mean, okay, so that Denmark won't do that again, type of thing.

Yeah. My other question for you, Scott, in what you shared. Are there any collaborations you've done with other business owners that you haven't shared yet? That has been one of your favorite collaborations? Well,

I think the one that I really love the 700 Malin, our bourbons, awesome, because it's, I'm a pilot as bourbon. outmatches way cool. We did do a collaboration where we put rum on the USS Constellation, up in Baltimore Harbor, so it's always moving, and then we donate back to the ship so we don't pay it back because I don't think we're going to be in the black for a couple more years because making bourbons and expensive endeavour. But we put we caught paying forward because we do a lot of charity things, collaboration where cost the 700 mile an hour bourbon, it's not a cheap way of making bourbon, and then doing things on the ship up there, we donate back to the ship with that product. But it creates something that nobody's ever done. It's interesting, when you get the state comptroller has to go inspect the hold of the constellation, because that is now your approved, bonded warehouse for your distillery. Better, what I just love the fact he had to inspect the hole of an 1850 to ship it. And then we have some, you know, the ones I really enjoy are people who, you know, I kind of give my idea and I don't, I'm not saying my ideas are good. And they change them around, do something completely different. So I have a lady here. And Pam Trevor, she has a company called intoxication. Hmm. And so she makes these little bunk kind of cakes. But when you cook with alcohol, it you know, it's a different kind of cooking, because alcohol burns off at 183. See, you don't want to cook it too much, because there's no alcohol left. So they're just the way that it's the chemistry and cooking there. So she's taken our products and put them in her little cakes. Island. Boy, those are really good. And the super savage thing is cool, too. Yeah, no, that

is all really cool stuff. And again, it's like in spirit of community and collaboration and seeing what could be created as a result of that.

Oh, man, I love the Lifelong Learner tip. Again, back to being a teacher, that is something that is always near and dear to my heart. And you know, as somebody who's been in the military community now for close to 15 years like that, to me is one of the best things to come out of this lifestyle, because you're constantly asked to change to move to relocate to, you know, even though my husband's done the same job since like, had the same MLS, if you will, since 2010. Like every time he moves to a different command, it's a little bit different iteration. And the same for me as a spouse, like we move to a different area. And like, you have to have that spirit of lifelong learning in order to live this life well. And so I think that's a great tip that even as you transition out of the military, like keep that spirit that you had to have with you to do all of those years of service is a great one. And I just again, history nerd love teaching history was my most favorite thing. So I had actually seen that piece on the constellation on their website. And I could not love that more like that, for me is even cooler than the 700 mile an hour bourbon.

Like, as cool as I think that would have been to see like, knowing that you put something on a ship that's been around since 1852. That like, is you know, it's still around from the US Navy is just such a fun thing to me and sound like such a cool idea. Like, how did you come around to like, Hey, we should put this on a ship?

Well, there's a bourbon called Jefferson's ocean. And what they do is they put bourbon on oceanographic research, and they send them around the world. It's really good bird, by the way. And so I said, Well, why can't we do this in America? Well, because you need because depends on the state you live in, they have to permit you. It has to be in a bonded federal warehouse. And so I went to the state. I'm the by the way, I'm the Chairman of the Board of historic ships in Baltimore. So I said, Hey, I'm going to donate back to the ship. But can I borrow the old year and have it down there? And once this state understood that, but I told him, no other state has done this. So let's have Maryland be in the front. You know, any state could do this. But I'm the only one who has a permit to age alcohol on a ship in America. Wow. Yeah. And an airplane too. So it's one of those things where you just, I don't really have any good ideas. That's why need to collaborate and talk to other people. And then you come up with them. And most people, you know, there's no proprietary mash bill and all this. I could take your recipe for bourbon and your recipe for and they'd all be different because it's your process. It's like your grandmother's cookie recipe. It depends on how you make them. You know, it's not the ingredients, it's how you make it, you know, you know, do you chill the dough first or do you put you know, you put it out of the bowl on it, you know, there's all these little nuances in like our warehouse, our Rick house where we store is at sea level about two miles from the water so it's very human. It's more like a Scottish dunnage house. So we don't get a lot of Angel shares, as they call it, we don't get a lot of them. We get, we do lose some on the inside, but we gain water because of the humidity here. So it just does creates a different terroir a different flavor for the bourbon.

Yeah. Wonderful. As we start to wrap up here, Scott, I'm curious to know if there's anything else you want to share about your company about tobacco barn distillery.

Oh, still something not about the company? Well, I mean, Jenny, limpid set one, when he said about lifelong learning. I'm gonna use my VA benefits to go to college next semester. Yeah, so the University of Louisville has a distillery course. So I just think that's kind of cool. That, you know, you got to work with the university you got to talk to VA is it's a lot of this. And so I think that's just kind of one of those things, hey, there's a lot of benefits we have as veterans and veteran families that you can use to take advantage of, you know, if if I don't know, I'm just to do it, like this, Hey, this falls in line I, you know, I never thought I'd be I never thought I'd be going to school with the VA. But here I am. 64 years old, and I have been going to school with the VA.

I think that's so fun. And to do something that like, is right up your alley. i It's funny, I love being a lifelong learner through going to the library and getting books that I want to read, my husband is often asked if I would like to be part of his post 911 GI Bill and go back and I'm like, yeah, having to do research for other people at this point in my life is not high on my list. But I never want to lose that inquisitive like mind of like just learning about other people, places and things. And if I were to ever be truly entrepreneurial, what a hard word to say, great. You know, I have the opportunity to go back like that is so cool that you get to go to the University of Louisville for bourbon distillery. You know, so fun.

The other thing, there's, there's a lot of, especially when you get to startups, and entrepreneurs, there's a lot of groups now they're out there they're hoping out. And don't be afraid of Yeah, it's some of its networking summit about getting good ideas. So I get a lot of these things, because it can be a time some too. So you got to be a little selective. But then you try it and see which one's worked for you. There's a thing they have in Washington DC, called burr bids. Bo, you are bi Z. And it's held up at the casino in Maryland up there at National Harbor. But they just use that as a tagline to get people together. And they'll get fun. Well, this is pre COVID. They'll get 500 people, oh, friends all work and they do a wars they do. And it's all kind of network and helping out, Hey, are you doing this and no showcase certain companies and those type of things? So depends on where you are. There's always groups popping up that you can affiliate with. So I think that's just something that I mean, yeah, I know most people listen to your podcast are probably aware of this, but some may not be.

Yeah, no, I think it's worth mentioning. And also just sharing, you know, in your perspective, what it looks like to network and put yourself out there. I'm still like fixated on the idea, like on you sharing earlier that you were like the oldest student in your social media class. And I think it's just again, a testament to how humble you are, I think and how open and willing you are to, you know, learn and collaborate and create with people. And I just really appreciate that spirit. And it gets me to think about why I've been an entrepreneur for the last decade, I go back to the first 10 years of being a military child, you know, moving every two to three years. And, you know, always having to start over and reinvent. And it's kind of crazy how that had translated to my adult life. Because that's basically what I've done in even in the last 10 years of my adult life, having been self employed and going through different iterations of business, but not having any shame in that, because of, I guess, again, the spirit of our community and being able to just like and what you said earlier, like it's okay to fail, because it's one that you should be okay with failure, because it could be the stepping stone to the next, you know, big idea, the next business. And so, you know, and hearing your story and hearing where you are now and you're in your 60s, and you're still open to learning, it's your story is just very inspiring for me, and I imagine to our listeners, it'll be as inspiring as well. I do have one more question I want to ask you as we wrap up here. And you know, our show, as you know, is called holding down the fort. And our show really speaks toward military spouses and families who are you know, shameless plug hold down the fort for you know, our service member but I'm curious to know when you hear the phrase holding down the fort, what comes to mind for you?

I think exactly what you talked about, you know, so, in a Vienna you know, I'd go on cruise for six months at a time now. My, my wife had to hold down the fort. I mean, she had the kids the dog and You know, her parents didn't understand this. Because even when I was short, based in Virginia Beach, if a hurricane came, I mean, I got an airplane and flew to a place that was safe. And I left my family. So because she had to hold down the fort, and this is in the early 80s, there wasn't a lot of people looking out for your wife back then. It was just hey, you know, why you can do so hope you make it. And so, you know, and we would call and, and I'd make sure she got either she would go to her parents in West Virginia or someplace. But you know, people are really minutes. You really do have to hold down the fort. You have to be I'll tell you, I went to see the first time and I haven't seen my checkbook since. So my wife has had the finances. Yeah, I don't. I think I get paid. I'm not so sure my wife runs Oh, pants is in this family. Now with that, I told her say, Okay, you have to do the income taxes. I'm not doing them. So she does the income taxes too. So, but I mean, she'd never run, you know, that kind of stuff before. But she picked it all up. I mean, there's something about the DNA of a military spouse, where you, you may not know it, but it gets dumped in your lap, and you'll figure it out.

And genuine here is nodding for our lives is a

fact. That is That is a fact. We have a very similar checkbook story here surpass.

I hope she did have a boyfriend. So

you know that that reminds me of my mom, when, like, afterward, we would we would ask her like So mom, you know, were you ever worried about dad like seeing other women when he was, you know, deployed? And she's like, I don't know, if he did, I didn't know about it. You know, I guess there's kind of the suspension of disbelief or you just, you know, you just kind of out of sight, out of mind kind of thing. But either way, congrats to you. And you know, your wife for having been together for so long. And for honoring her and bringing her up today in our conversation. And yeah, I mean, I think we had a really good talk today. I feel really good and inspired by you, Scott. I'm curious to know, other than people visiting your website, tobacco barn distillery calm. Are there other ways you would like for people to get a hold of you if they want to reach out?

Yeah, we have. I forgot this is a pretty exciting news. So due to, they've changed some of the laws. I think by Christmas, I'm going to be able to mail our alcohol to military bases. Ups, so I'm, in fact I was on with UPS yesterday, we have all the authorities put in there. And it's I'm going to do a trial run because they can mail if somebody either lives on a base or if there's a UPS Store, if the military installation will be able to mail to it. So wow, a classmate of mine who lives near Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas. They have a UPS Store. So we're going to do the test run it is. And if that works, we'll be able to mail to any Navy base or any military base in the US. I think at least the continental US I'm not sure if Alaska wire. Well, that is really exciting. That is Drake's Yeah, that is very cool.

So we're gonna have to stay in touch with you, Scott, and stay connected. And as you mentioned earlier, if you are looking to collaborate with us and bring on other veteran business owners to share their story, just so you know, that invitation is open to you, I often encourage a lead to bring people in her network. And that's really what we do here. We kind of word of mouth it. For sure.

And then once we're done here, YouTube give together, see if I pass the interview stage, and I'll let you know about this agriculture project I'm working on. And maybe we can do a podcast together. Yeah, but you approved and make sure I make the grade.

Cool call. Well, Jenny Lynn, and I will have have a discussion. You have

a team scoring sheet.

I love it. Well, Scott, thank you so much for being here. And Jennylyn. I'm curious to see if you had any final thoughts or comments you want to share with Scott before we go?

No, this has been a joy on a Thursday afternoon. It was much needed.

I agree. I agree for sure. Awesome. Well, very

nice to meet both of you. Thank you very much,

Mike was

absolutely and of course to our listeners want to thank you so much for joining us today. Remember you can reach out to Scott at his website tobacco barn distillery calm. We'll also have his other contact information in the show notes for you. Until then, thank you all so much for listening, and we'll chat with you in the next episode. Tune in next time.