Shining Ain’t Easy
Don’t let anyone tell you Shining is easy!
First, this is my first attempt at writing a blog. That is, all by itself, a little out of my comfort zone. I mean what if I screw it up? Well, like everything else in my life, I expect to make mistakes. How else am I supposed to improve? You can’t go through life worried about making mistakes or facing screw ups.
We always see the people or products shine in print or on the screen. How often do we consider the amount of work that went in to getting that shine on? I always think of models and actresses with amazing bodies. How many food items did they pass up? How many hours of grueling exercise did they put in? How many coffees without cream? Professional athletes too. I sometimes think about working out. Thinking about it is often as far as I get with it.
I thought it might be fun to share a small amount of what goes into opening a distillery. First, I’ll admit this has been an 8-year process since I first had the bright idea to make Shine while driving to pilot training with what use to be US Airways. Seriously, I achieved an 11-year goal to be a pilot for a major carrier only to set another huge one my way there. What is wrong with me? A flight doc once told me, “No grass is going to grow under your feet!” Col Melinda Sutton, you are 100% correct.
Like many, my dream was far bigger than my knowledge. I knew absolutely nothing about making moonshine, opening or running a distillery, how much it is regulated, how expensive it is to do, or much of anything else. I just thought I had a great idea! I still think it’s a great idea. I still feel like I have no idea what I’m doing somedays.
The one thing I did know about was the importance of trademarks. The first thing I did was apply for my trademarks. My original team just insisted that my best-selling feature was my last name. More specifically, my last name being the same as a very famous woman. I do not now, nor have I ever, relied on being related to a famous person. In fact, everything I have done has been so foreign to my Aunt she couldn’t have helped me even if she wanted to. Plus, Dolly does not and will not promote alcohol or nudity. Well, I ain’t getting naked so we agree on that!
My first trademark was for Parton’s Moonshine. I was always a little apprehensive about relying so heavily on the name Parton even though it is mine. You know who else didn’t like it?. Not Dolly but Patron as in Patron tequila. Patron’s parent company is PSI International, and they challenged the use of the word ‘Parton’ in my trademark. Basically, they said it could be confused with Patron. Nobody else thought so, to include the trademark and patten office. Let me just say, Patron & PSI have much deeper pockets than I do. The one thing I have more of is stubbornness.
After about two years of lawyering tactics and $100,000 of my hourly earned money, I agreed to not make tequila. For the record, I would have agreed to this day one for $10 since I don’t like tequila. Patron was created by John Paul DeJoria who also created Paul Mitchell hair products. To this day, as a matter of principle, I cannot use Paul Mitchell products. I simply cannot justify the price! (I’m not saying you should not. They are excellent products!) If anyone knows him, please feel free to ask for my money back that I had to spend on this matter. I was never competition, and all the lawyers knew it.
Literally, within a day or two of that hell being finished and settled, I decided I didn’t want to use Parton’s Moonshine anyway. It never did feel like the right fit. I was driving down the road and literally the two words “Shine Girl” popped in my head. I thought, that is who I am. I am the Shine Girl! So, I started the trademark process all over again. This time with smooth sailing.
Sounds solved and ready to go don’t it? Nope! I still had this small problem of not having enough money to open a distillery. I was still a nobody to the public, even if I was almost famous ;) so licensing deals were not just piling up in front of me. So, I occupied my time learning how to make mash, distill it, and see what I like and what I didn’t. Trust me, when you make distilled spirits, you will always have plenty of tasters. By the way, I bought my first still off of Amazon like any normal person would do if normal people wanted one.
Still, no money. No investor. No distillery. Just an expensive dream and a couple of trademarks.
Have you ever heard people say that “opportunity doesn’t come knocking on your door?” I always hated that saying because it is not true. Opportunity is everywhere. You just have to recognize it and act when it does. Mine showed up while I was eating lunch. Not only that, I had asked my then boyfriend to not say anything. How often do men listen? He mentioned to a mutual friend of ours who owned a distillery I was trying to get into the business. The next thing I knew, I was the majority owner of that distillery. Literally, within a couple of weeks.
Great! I have a distillery. Now what? Well, I about lost my mind is what. The distillery had been closed to the public for about 16 months. I had to start learning. I thought, how will I ever learn how to use this equipment? A year later, the equipment doesn’t intimidate me. What occupies my time are the rules and regulations of distilled spirits. It has taken over a year to get the distillery in compliance and up to-date with reports and operational. If you ever need help falling asleep go read 27 CFR. Be warned, if you do not fall asleep, you may need a mental health hotline ready! I read and learn daily.
When I say everything is regulated concerning making distilled spirits, I am not even kidding. The size of the font on the label, the flavorings used, how to measure the proofs, and let’s not forget taxes. I have to pay federal excise tax before I can even move it to my store front plus state taxes. The government gets paid first! Then there are the monthly reports: Storage, Production, and Processing. Each has to be done even if nothing is happening.
Get this: I have to ‘Clear My Brand’ by selling it to a distributor who then sells it back to me so I can now sell it in my distillery. A little left-over Prohibition three tier action there.
Then there are logs to be kept, brand development, website creation, inventories to keep up, bookkeeping, booze to be processed, bottled, labeled, boxed, shelves to be stocked, employees to hire, employment rules, and taxes guideline to follow, and I haven’t opened the doors yet to one customer. Trust me, this is not an all-inclusive list.
I’m not complaining, even though pilots are world champion complainers. I just want to give you an idea of some of what goes into it. As a matter of fact, shining reminds me an awful lot of being a pilot. Anybody can fly a small plane. Taking off is easy. Keeping it level is easy. Landing is a little trickier but easy to learn and fun. The hard part is the bookwork. For every hour doing the fun stuff, flying, I bet we spend ten or more hours studying to have the knowledge to do it right.
For every sip of shine I have made, I have spent 100s of hours working to do it right. Just like flying, I need the same outcome every time I produce my products.
Also similar to my airline life, I have had plenty of people want the benefits of being involved with me. Everything from friends, lovers, potential business partners, drunks, and bums want in on the action. Just like they want a free buddy pass. Nobody wants to do the work. Or, can’t figure out that you have to accomplish A to get to B to eventually get to making the money. They want the glory without the work. Sadly, it doesn’t work that way. I truly believe you get out of a situation what you put into it. I could say I flew a Cessna once or I could spend the time working, learning, studying, and polishing my skills to now fly an Air Bus 321 for one of the largest, if not the largest airline in the world. Same with owning and running a distillery.
I’ve had to weed out plenty of roadblocks - people in it for themselves. I’ve also had to give up romantic attachments because the ‘man’ couldn’t handle me working in male dominated fields and/or getting more attention than them. I have to always be alerted to mooches of several varieties.
Everything comes with a price! Everything!!!
I’m happy to pay the price to shine. I like working on something that I believe in. I’ll be working on new goals till I kick over dead. I think we get old when we stop growing and reaching for new things.
Shine Girl is my baby and I plan on it supporting me in my old age! I tell everyone, I want Shine Girl to fund my retirement (like I’ll ever retire) and the airline to be my fun job. I mean that with every ounce of my being. Being that I have been eating really good lately, there is a tad more of that being than I’d like. I’ll work on that too!
All that being said, it’s hard work to shine in anything! That is why I decided on the slogan of Shine In All You Do! It doesn’t matter what it is. It doesn’t matter if you are doing it to make money or for enjoyment. Anything worth doing is worth working hard for.
You have my full support and permission to
Shine In All You Do!
I’m glad y’all got to see me! Get after it! Tell me how you have stayed focus to accomplish your goals and how you shine. More to come from me. I’m not sold on my post schedule yet. Trust me, I have plenty to say.
