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Welcome to Make Your Passion Pay, hosted by LuAnn Buechler, a seasoned leader with a master’s degree in Hospitality Administration and a recipient of the TLC Award for Leadership. This podcast is designed for business owners who have left toxic environments to create their own thriving workplaces but find themselves struggling with team building and mindset. Join LuAnn as she shares insights and strategies to help you cultivate joy and a positive mindset in your business and personal life. Drawing from her experience working with renowned leaders like Dr. Ivan Misner, LuAnn guides you in building a supportive community and mastering the art of people management. Each episode offers practical advice and inspiring stories to empower you to transform your work environment into one that reflects your values and passions. Tune in to discover how to lead with joy, foster meaningful connections, and truly make your passion pay.
Welcome to another episode of Make Your Passions Pay, where we have conversations about the six Cs to make your passions pay, which as a reminder are clarity, connection, community, collaboration, creativity, and commitment. And I know my friend Matt here today has a lot to share about his core values and some of the Cs that he uses in his business. So Matt Estrin is an entrepreneur, author, and founder and CEO of 477 Distilling, who spent 15 years as a pastor before taking the leap into business ownership. Over the past seven years, he has launched seven businesses while navigating the reality of entrepreneurship, leadership, failure, and growth. His book, I Know the Owner: From Holy Water to Happy Hour—I love that title—shares the lessons he has learned along the way and his belief that purpose, people, and persistence matter more than a perfect business plan. Oh, I love that, Matt. My tagline is finding joy through passion, people, and processes.
(00:02:57.177) Matthew Estrin: Love it. That's awesome. And it seems like alliterations too.
(00:03:03.377) LuAnn Buechler: Yeah. A lot of Ps and a lot of Cs going on. Oh
(00:03:08.377) Matthew Estrin: good. Perfect. Yeah. We'll pick a new letter today and just see what we can come up with.
(00:03:13.477) LuAnn Buechler: It's fun. Well, you know, Becoming an entrepreneur. I mean, what is that about my friends.
(00:03:25.377) Matthew Estrin: Yeah, I mean it's a wild story. Probably not as wild as people think. You know, usually when I tell people that I went from being a pastor to owning a distillery, they're expecting some crazy story of how I started burning Bibles and sipping on devil juice and corrupting the world, and none of that is true. But the bottom line is, I loved, you know, I loved being a pastor. I was a music pastor for 15 years. I loved every second of it, it was awesome. I talk a lot about, you know, I'm a huge proponent of feeling that passion deep in your soul, the thing that really ignites you and gets you fired up. For a long time it was being a music pastor in churches, but somewhere in my mid-30s, which I know is shocking that I'm older than I look. Thirty is looking at me on the screen. I'm sure you thought I was probably 21 or 22, but somewhere around my mid-30s, that passion started to change, and that desire deep in my soul to do something different started to kind of creep up. My wife and I took our anniversary trip to Napa Valley, California, visited wine country, and honestly on the trip, I just fell in love with alcohol—not just the drinking of it, but the manufacturing process, the culture around it, the tasting rooms. I just—the whole industry just fascinated me. And so I came back from that trip determined to learn how to make alcohol. Of the three disciplines—beer, wine, and spirits—I like spirits the most. I'm a huge bourbon fan, gigantic bourbon fan, and so I decided to start making it. I started with a little five-gallon stovetop still that I literally put on my stove and did all the mashing and the fermenting and distilling, and then eventually graduated to a 32-gallon system. Then eventually I got to a place where I had just become so in love and passionate, and again, that feeling deep in my soul of wanting to do it, that we decided to give it a go. And so I decided to leave a 15-year career that I enjoyed. I still believe in the church, I still go to church, but it was just time for something new. What that sparked in me—you know, I started that—it's still early and I could talk all day about distilling and manufacturing. What I found is as much as I loved distilling, what I found I loved even more was business and entrepreneurship, and so that ignited within me this massive passion for wanting to start new businesses, creating new businesses, encouraging other entrepreneurs. And that's where we are today.
(00:06:05.077) LuAnn Buechler: Yeah. And then you went all in and started seven
(00:06:09.477) Matthew Estrin: businesses. I did. Yeah. All in. Yeah, no
(00:06:12.677) LuAnn Buechler: doubt. And they're related though in some
(00:06:15.577) Matthew Estrin: sense. So the second business I started was an axe throwing bar where you throw axes at wood.
(00:06:22.377) LuAnn Buechler: targets. I would tell you
(00:06:24.577) Matthew Estrin: I know, right? Don't worry, I'm not gonna get into the strip clubs or anything. We keep those. Haven't gotten that far yet, but so axe throwing bar, then we did a cocktail bar about an hour away and then we got into the restaurant business. So I have two restaurants and then we expanded our distillery to multiple tasting rooms and multiple locations, and some businesses have been very successful. I've closed one, I've sold two, and I am currently living with four. So,
(00:06:55.577) LuAnn Buechler: Four, and the four. Are two restaurants,
(00:06:57.677) Matthew Estrin: two restaurants and two distilleries.
(00:06:59.877) LuAnn Buechler: Yep, right. Curious where those are.
(00:07:05.877) Matthew Estrin: Located. Yeah, for sure. So, we are in, I live in Greeley, Colorado, and so my first restaurant and first distillery are both in Greeley and downtown Greeley, Colorado. And then the location for both of those, the second spots, is in a town over in Loveland, Colorado. So, both of them are about 20 miles from each other. The distillery is called 477 Distilling, and the restaurant is called Oaken Maple. It is a gourmet waffle restaurant. We specialize in waffles, chicken and waffles, fruity,
(00:07:39.777) LuAnn Buechler: waffles, and waffles was a South tradition.
(00:07:44.277) Matthew Estrin: Negative, negative. Yeah. So, can I—I'm gonna get rid of that myth while we're
(00:07:49.777) LuAnn Buechler: on this podcast.
(00:07:50.377) Matthew Estrin: Yeah. Because here's the thing, I am a proud Californian. I grew up in Southern California. I lived there till I was 20 before I moved. Did a small stint in Florida. Then I've been in Colorado for almost 20 years, but I'm a proud Californian. I love being from California. Big sports fan of California, but chicken and waffles started in California—Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles. And LA is where it started.
(00:08:14.777) LuAnn Buechler: So,
(00:08:15.077) Matthew Estrin: The south may think it's theirs, but it's really
(00:08:19.377) LuAnn Buechler: the
(00:08:19.677) Matthew Estrin: South of California.
(00:08:23.277) LuAnn Buechler: Well, thank you for the correction on that.
(00:08:25.377) Matthew Estrin: You're welcome. Gotta keep the people informed, you know.
(00:08:28.377) LuAnn Buechler: So in your bio, you talk about lessons learned in entrepreneurship, leadership, failure, and growth, and I like to look at failure as simply educational opportunities to learn.
(00:08:45.177) Matthew Estrin: Yep, absolutely. We tell that to our kids all the time
(00:08:48.277) LuAnn Buechler: you know and we as adults need to remember that
(00:08:53.277) Matthew Estrin: right? Absolutely
(00:08:54.377) LuAnn Buechler: ourselves up with that language,
(00:08:57.277) Matthew Estrin: Right? Yep. Yeah, in the truth of entrepreneurship. I mean, the reality of entrepreneurship is the last statistic I saw is that currently about 50% of businesses fail in the first five
(00:09:10.977) LuAnn Buechler: years.
(00:09:11.177) Matthew Estrin: And so your chances of success in entrepreneurship are about 50/50. And so you have equal opportunity to build a huge business and sell it and make a lot of money, as well as for it to crumble and to have to deal with that pain. But to look at that failure piece and the reality of having a business that fails is painful as it will be, it will be a huge part of your story, and the fact that you'll be able to learn from it, come back from it, maybe continue to be an entrepreneur, maybe take a little bit of a break. But the amount of stories you hear of entrepreneurs that started a business, lost everything, learned so much, built it back up, and now are very successful. I think it's a reality that we live in.
(00:09:54.677) LuAnn Buechler: That. Do you was at the first? You said, you closed one
(00:09:58.977) Matthew Estrin: Business. Yeah, no. I, I, first business is still the distillery and we're still rolling almost nine years in.
(00:10:04.977) LuAnn Buechler: that
(00:10:05.177) Matthew Estrin: Business. You know, we did a second axe throwing bar in a town about an hour away and it just didn't work. It made about six months and we shut her down. Wasn't the right spot, wasn't the right decision.
(00:10:18.677) LuAnn Buechler: Wow. Doesn't seem like very long to be able to make that decision.
(00:10:22.977) Matthew Estrin: No, but when it's bleeding your funds dry, you kind of have to make this decision. You know what I mean?
(00:10:31.577) LuAnn Buechler: I guess I had a flash of the Bar Rescue show.
(00:10:34.477) Matthew Estrin: All right, exactly. Yes.
(00:10:38.277) LuAnn Buechler: Number of people that bleed themselves dry trying to keep a bar alive.
(00:10:42.477) Matthew Estrin: It's pretty crazy.
(00:10:44.277) LuAnn Buechler: Yeah.
(00:10:45.077) Matthew Estrin: So it's when it's your passion, what's that?
(00:10:48.077) LuAnn Buechler: What are your secrets to
(00:10:49.777) Matthew Estrin: Success? Oh, I mean having alcohol readily available to you is very helpful. I'm just kidding. You know, I don't know if there's any secrets to it. I think there's a lot of things that I've done well and things that I've done poorly with. The thing I really like to try to put out there to people is one of the lessons I learned pretty early on in the distillery. So we opened in June of 2018 and I can remember, we opened, we were very busy for about three months and it was all my friends, my family, people that knew me, the hype we got from the newspaper articles, the hype that we got for being a new thing in town, and it was like three months of just, man, we just took off. And then all of a sudden that line started to curve and go down the other way. The friends started to not come around as much. The people started to not come around as much, and I had this realization early on where I realized, like, I'm going to tell a few stories. I can get sidetracked. If you can't tell, I can get very sidetracked, have a little bit of ADD inside. I mean, plus I'm drinking coffee, so we're going all the way here today. But there's a very famous movie from my generation called Field of Dreams. I don't know if you've ever seen Field of Dreams. The whole premise of the movie is
(00:12:12.677) LuAnn Buechler: A guy that we know what's
(00:12:14.577) Matthew Estrin: Going on. You know what's going on? Yeah, yeah. Okay. So Field of Dreams is about a guy that owns a cornfield. He plows down his cornfield and builds a baseball diamond. He does that because he hears a voice in his head that says, if you build it, he will come. The whole movie is about who the 'he' is going to be. But he builds this cornfield and all these old baseball players start showing up. I mean, incredible movie, ends up being about him and his dad. I won't get into the whole movie. All that being said is, I think a lot of entrepreneurs, including me early on, have this idea that they're building a Field of Dreams business, like, if I build it, the people are going to show up, right? If I open my doors, it's going to be great. My product is good, my service is good. The thing I'm doing is good, I know, it's fantastic. So as long as I create it, the people are going to show up, and what I realized is that is true for the first few months and then it's not.
(00:13:03.277) LuAnn Buechler: true.
(00:13:03.577) Matthew Estrin: Once all those people start to to wear out you
(00:13:08.077) LuAnn Buechler: have
(00:13:08.177) Matthew Estrin: You have to get people through your front door. And so I tell entrepreneurs all the time, no business is an 'if you build it, they will come' business. Every business is an 'if you build it, you still have to make them come' business. And so for me, I wouldn't say it's a secret, but one of the things that I've done that I believe has provided a lot of success for my businesses is I work so incredibly hard at being one of the most recognizable, most known figures in my community.
(00:13:37.477) LuAnn Buechler: I want to be
(00:13:38.477) Matthew Estrin: So we call it being a Greeley. I live in Greeley, it's a celebrity in Greeley, agreed,
(00:13:43.577) LuAnn Buechler: Liberty love
(00:13:45.877) Matthew Estrin: it. But the reality is, the more people that know me, the North people that that trust me that like me that want to support me. Those people are going to walk into my business and support it. So we hit my book is called I know the owner I'm wearing my I know the owner hat today and I make the comment in the book that if five people a day walk into my business and say I know the owner, that's not enough for me, and the reality is that no phrase has ever been more valuable to the success of my business in the phrase. I know the owner now, I get it. With a little bit of annoyance to my team and the people that know the owner want a little bit better treatment sometimes, want something for free. But the truth is they're walking in there because they know you and they want to support you and they want to spend money with you. And and so, I would say for anybody, that's listening one to know a secret, if you will is at some point, you got to get outside of your business and into your community, so that your community will show up for your business.
(00:14:43.577) LuAnn Buechler: I love that. I just did a presentation this morning and I said, stronger businesses make stronger community.
(00:14:52.077) Matthew Estrin: Absolutely.
(00:14:52.777) LuAnn Buechler: Yeah, the fabric of the communities and vice versa. We need the community to be a successful business owner, right?
(00:15:01.277) Matthew Estrin: Absolutely.
(00:15:02.077) LuAnn Buechler: Yeah, one of my mentors says no one, but no one, does this alone.
(00:15:08.377) Matthew Estrin: Alright.
(00:15:09.077) LuAnn Buechler: There's no such thing as the field of dreams and there's no such thing as the self-made man.
(00:15:15.777) Matthew Estrin: right?
(00:15:17.277) LuAnn Buechler: Everybody gets help. You don't build—
(00:15:18.177) Matthew Estrin: Help. You don't build—yep, you don't build a business in a vacuum, that's for sure.
(00:15:21.877) LuAnn Buechler: For sure, for sure. So, crazy enough, I was seeing this in my mind's eye. I just saw a restaurant in my town in Rochester, Minnesota, and the wait staff was wearing t-shirts that said 'I know the owner' on
(00:15:39.577) Matthew Estrin: the back. I love it.
(00:15:40.977) LuAnn Buechler: I love it. I know that owner and goal. Hey, have you read the book?
(00:15:48.277) Matthew Estrin: It went well, and I'm guessing they were the t-shirts because everybody knows the owner,
(00:15:51.777) LuAnn Buechler: right?
(00:15:51.977) Matthew Estrin: They wouldn't, they wouldn't have the t-shirts if the owner wasn't famous in his town. We actually at our distillery, too, it says, I know the owner, everyone at 477 Distilling, because it's a little bit true and it can be comical, like a little humor to the situation. I recently had—we did a private party for our top 30 customers for our anniversary. We brought them in, and a lady tried to get into the private party that was not a top 30 customer. And I met her out front and, you know, I said, you know, give me your name. She gives me her name and I said, I'm sorry, not on the list. We'd love to have you come back and see us in about an hour when we open to the public. And she literally said, she goes, oh no, no, no. I know Matt. I'm like, I am Matt, like, you know
(00:16:37.277) LuAnn Buechler: me,
(00:16:37.577) Matthew Estrin: She's literally threw my name out there to me, which was incredible.
(00:16:41.277) LuAnn Buechler: Yeah,
(00:16:41.877) Matthew Estrin: You know, again, I just go back to I just think it's the more that your community knows you, likes you, trusts you, the more that they're willing to show up for your business and support with their dollars, with their Facebook feed, with their Instagram feed. And I mean, all of that is really important,
(00:16:58.877) LuAnn Buechler: Right? So, a couple of things that I want to highlight to the listeners, right? You don't build a business in a vacuum. You don't build a business hiding in your office. You got to get out, you gotta be a part of the community and make yourself known in the community. This is the C, right? The community is so important and people want to do business with people they know, like, and
(00:17:27.677) Matthew Estrin: Trust.
(00:17:28.077) LuAnn Buechler: Exactly. Yeah, I'm online. We use BNI all the time. You're familiar with BNI, Matt?
(00:17:34.577) Matthew Estrin: I am. I'm not a member of BNI, but very familiar with it.
(00:17:38.077) LuAnn Buechler: Yes, good. I'm glad you have a chapter in Greeley.
(00:17:40.877) Matthew Estrin: Oh yeah. Multiple chapters in Greeley.
(00:17:44.777) LuAnn Buechler: Any of them host at your restaurant?
(00:17:46.177) Matthew Estrin: We've had a couple beers hosted at our restaurant before. Yeah, we've done a few for sure. And I actually, you know, in my book, I give some practical tips as to how to do this, because there's probably a lot of people that listen who go, all that sounds great, but I can't just walk outside of my front door and hold a sign. And BNI groups is a big one, you know, any sort of networking group that you join, it's a paid membership. I'm a huge advocate for the chamber of commerce. I don't know if Rochester has a big chamber of commerce, but I sit on two chamber of commerce boards. And I just really think a chamber of commerce that is doing very well for their community is probably one of the best tools that a business owner can be a part of. Huge chamber of commerce fan. I also really like service clubs. So, I'm a Rotarian, you've got Kiwanis out there, all these are great places to get in your community. And then I always suggest, and I suggest it for pure reasons, but board sitting, sitting on boards is huge. And if you can find an organization that you care about that has an open board position, I would consider that. I sit on four boards right now.
(00:18:51.677) LuAnn Buechler: one
(00:18:52.877) Matthew Estrin: One is appointed by the city. Two of them are chamber of commerce boards. And then, believe it or not, sounds goofy, I'm not a creeper, but I sit on our—we have a college in our town and I sit on their women's volleyball team board. I have two daughters that play volleyball, so I'm supporting women's volleyball. I'm not a weird creeper guy that just wants to be around college women's volleyball players.
(00:19:13.077) LuAnn Buechler: So no, excellent, what great advice, and we talk about it all the time, and my listeners likely know by now that I'm a big BNI advocate, but I will never tell you that BNI is the only place to be. It's one place to
(00:19:29.477) Matthew Estrin: be.
(00:19:29.677) LuAnn Buechler: Yeah. And you should always be a member of your local chamber. It demonstrates that I am a business in this community, right? And the two are so different. The chamber must represent all businesses in the community.
(00:19:44.777) Matthew Estrin: community. Yeah.
(00:19:45.777) LuAnn Buechler: In a BNI chapter, you get the exclusivity of one person per profession. Sure, different, and I do recommend service clubs. Like, I just did a presentation the other day and I asked the audience how many were in service clubs, and very few hands raised. I'm like, no, no, you got to get involved in your community. Go find yourself a service club that you're aligned with and be a part of. Yeah, you brought faith and purpose and values all into your business model. Tell us about that.
(00:20:17.577) Matthew Estrin: Um, you know, it's interesting. I, coming from a background as a pastor, going into operating a business, you would not know that I'm a Christian business owner if you walked into my business. I don't, I'm not the guy that plays Christian music on the radio, and I don't have verses and scriptures all over my wall. Like, I just, and there's specific reasons for that. But the truth is, you know, when it comes to the faith part of things, it shows up in my core values. So we have three core values that are very, very, very, very, very, very important to us. The first one is that we love serving people, and all my businesses carry the same three core values across the board.
(00:20:56.977) LuAnn Buechler: board,
(00:20:57.177) Matthew Estrin: They just change. They change a little bit depending on the industry they're in, but number one is we love serving people. We never want to forget that we are in the business of people. I tell my staff all the time, they get so sick of hearing it, but I say it all the time that every person that walks through our front door or picks up one of our bottles off the shelf is either having the best day of their life, the worst day of their life, or somewhere in between, and we have the privilege to be a part of that. We get to encourage them, and so we are our tasting room. Our restaurants have had equal parts tears and laughter. We've had people getting engaged and getting married in our tasting room. We've had people have celebrations of life and funerals in our tasting room, like across the whole spectrum of life. We get to be a part of that, and it is a victory for me. It is a win for me if people look back on my business and talk about how influential it was in their life, or how it played a huge part of their life. So never want to forget that we're in the business of people. We love serving people. Number two, we love our community. You know, we've talked about this at length already, but I'm such a fan of there's a phrase that they used in church world a lot, where they would say that if you disappeared tomorrow, if your business closed tomorrow, would the community even notice? And for me, it's important that our community knows that we care about them. That looks like a few things for us. Number one is we are very generous with our money, and we're very generous with our products. So if people walk in and ask for a donation, we never say no. Probably not the wisest financial
(00:22:29.777) LuAnn Buechler: plan,
(00:22:30.977) Matthew Estrin: plan, but I heard a very well-known business person say, I've never heard of a business that had a bad reputation for being too generous, and I always loved that phrase. And so we are generous with products, we're generous with gift cards, we're generous with our funds. We give away quite a bit of money to the community, but also we want a space that our community is proud of. So we've made sure that our spaces that we have are clean, that they're family friendly, that the furniture looks nice. We want people to go, you know, if they have a friend that comes to town and they're showing off their friend
(00:23:06.277) LuAnn Buechler: around
(00:23:06.477) Matthew Estrin: around, to be the place where they got to take you to 477 or Oakland Maple because it is so cool. So love serving people, love serving our community, and then the last one is about creativity. And it changes depending on the business, but for the distillery, the last one is we love making cocktails better. In the waffle place, we love making
(00:23:25.877) LuAnn Buechler: waffles better,
(00:23:26.677) Matthew Estrin: We want to be at the highest level of creativity and innovation that we possibly can. We want to serve things that nobody else in the world is serving—dishes, cocktails, experiences that nobody else is doing. So what that looks like for us is we change—we'll talk about the distillery—we change our cocktail menu four times a year, and it's a brand new menu every time, maybe other than four of our most popular cocktails. Every time we do this, we're not looking up cocktail books and picking out recipes; we are creating recipes from scratch. We literally get our whole team together, we determine the 15 flavors we want to focus on for this menu, we set our bar up with everything you could think of, and we spend an entire day as a team creating ideas and menus and cocktails. So those are our core values.
(00:24:23.877) LuAnn Buechler: What's that? How much fun?
(00:24:25.577) Matthew Estrin: So, much fun
(00:24:27.677) LuAnn Buechler: Too many times, I think that business owners take the fun out, like it's frivolous—like, I can't pay my employees a whole day's wage and not have them serve anybody, but rather be creating ideas. Yet that's so powerful to the result of how people love you.
(00:24:48.277) Matthew Estrin: Well, and here's the coolest part about it. So we've got a menu, we're working on our fall menu right now. Our summer menu's out, now we're working on our fall menu that comes out in about a month. On that menu, every single one of my employees will have at least one cocktail on that menu. You know how many cocktails I have on the menu? Zero.
(00:25:06.877) LuAnn Buechler: zero.
(00:25:07.577) Matthew Estrin: I have zero cocktails on the menu and I'm okay with that. There's no pride in it for me to be like, this is my menu and my bit. One of the things I've realized in giving away leadership, allowing people to be creative, allowing my team to come up with menus, is how incredibly talented my team is. They're way more talented than
(00:25:28.877) LuAnn Buechler: I am. Okay, that's important. What you just said at the pause for
(00:25:32.777) Matthew Estrin: a minute, okay.
(00:25:33.977) LuAnn Buechler: You said giving away my leadership? What you're really doing is making leaders of everyone on the team by allowing them to use their gifts, their passions to contribute to the greater good of the company. Exactly. Powerful.
(00:25:52.377) Matthew Estrin: super
(00:25:52.977) LuAnn Buechler: Powerful, and too many people are too busy trying to be the ultimate leader. Know there are leaders throughout your organization, and you just give them the power to use it.
(00:26:07.377) Matthew Estrin: any opportunity to use it.
(00:26:09.577) LuAnn Buechler: Yeah. So quick story. Hallmark cards.
(00:26:13.477) Matthew Estrin: Yeah,
(00:26:14.177) LuAnn Buechler: They were at a culture conference that I went to and spoke about the culture, and it was the HR representative, and she said, I nearly, you know, tipped over my board. I told them I wanted to give everybody a week off, paid week off to go do something creative, go learn a new medium, whatever. If it's what you've been doing here and you want to get better, or if it's a new medium that you want to try in the art world, right? Go do it. And we're gonna pay you for that week of you learning something new and creative, and they actually produced products that are now on the shelf in Hallmark stores.
(00:26:57.877) Matthew Estrin: That's
(00:26:58.377) LuAnn Buechler: Allowed their people that time.
(00:27:00.977) Matthew Estrin: That's great.
(00:27:01.977) LuAnn Buechler: I love that. Yes, crazy. But this is what can happen.
(00:27:05.577) Matthew Estrin: Yeah.
(00:27:06.277) LuAnn Buechler: That creativity, thinking outside the
(00:27:08.977) Matthew Estrin: box, and yeah,
(00:27:09.677) LuAnn Buechler: We love you, Matt, but it's not all about
(00:27:11.877) Matthew Estrin: Matt, it's sincerely, it's not, and back to the original point, we've been making this whole time. When I allow my team to take on that type of stuff, guess what? It gives me time to do.
(00:27:26.377) LuAnn Buechler: Be free to do what you want to do.
(00:27:27.877) Matthew Estrin: Get out in my community, get out the four walls, and go to the networking groups and get people through the front door. So, when you allow your team to have leadership, when you give them the opportunities to take on a task that maybe you did in the very beginning, it frees you up to get out the walls of your building and to get people in. And as I was saying, you also will learn how incredibly talented the people are that work for you. The truth is, like, when it comes to bartending skill, if you show up to my tasting room, if you see me behind the bar, three other bartenders behind the bar, I can guarantee you I'm the worst one.
(00:28:09.377) LuAnn Buechler: behind the
(00:28:09.677) Matthew Estrin: bar. They're all so much better than I am, and you do not want me making a drink for you because they're so good at it. We have a guy that we hired that does all of our creation of our products now that we put in bottles and sell around the country, and that was me in the beginning. But he is better than I am, and he does a really good job, and so he does it all. I don't, you know, there's no pride in it for me, which gives time to get on podcasts with you, to get out in my community, to serve on boards, to do all these things.
(00:28:40.377) LuAnn Buechler: Right? And you're allowing your people to shine. You're allowing your people to take pride in what they do. And then what do they do? They tell their communities?
(00:28:52.877) Matthew Estrin: Absolutely.
(00:28:53.677) LuAnn Buechler: Yeah. Word of mouth is the most valuable marketing in the world. Right.
(00:28:58.977) Matthew Estrin: Yep.
(00:28:59.777) LuAnn Buechler: And customers come in because they know, like, and trust your team.
(00:29:04.477) Matthew Estrin: Yep,
(00:29:05.377) LuAnn Buechler: Exactly. You are an extension of you. It's so beautiful, and that is the direction the world needs to go and really allow the people. It's almost like servant leadership.
(00:29:18.477) Matthew Estrin: Yeah, exactly. Yep.
(00:29:20.277) LuAnn Buechler: You would speak that language for sure.
(00:29:22.677) Matthew Estrin: Right. Was right.
(00:29:25.277) LuAnn Buechler: There. Mastering is right there.
(00:29:27.477) Matthew Estrin: But it's
(00:29:27.977) LuAnn Buechler: True. Right.
(00:29:29.277) Matthew Estrin: Yep.
(00:29:29.977) LuAnn Buechler: Exactly. Entrepreneurs who hide from that point of being out in the community, right? And you just can't be there. You have to have that face in the community. Absolutely. I've worked with a lot who worked really hard and did it all for a while, and then they finally have given the empowerment to their team, and now they go out in the community. And I just want to hang out in the community, which kind of sounds a little bit like where you're at.
(00:30:03.177) Matthew Estrin: Yeah. Yeah. I like it all. I like my team. I like being, I like working. I like my businesses, but I love being out, being out in the community. I've got a full day of it today. I've got, you know, pretty much I get done with this. And I'm stacked with with Buddy, meetings, and community events all the way up until seventh night when my daughter plays volleyball game.
(00:30:23.677) LuAnn Buechler: So
(00:30:23.977) Matthew Estrin: it's nonstop for me today.
(00:30:28.777) LuAnn Buechler: The word distillery in my life means where the alcohol is made, but is it also a bar slash distillery?
(00:30:38.777) Matthew Estrin: Yeah, so you're correct and the distillery is a manufacturing facility that manufactures spirits. So whiskey, vodka, gin, liqueurs. Those are all made in this distillery in Colorado where I live. When we get a distillery license, we also get what they call a sales room license. And a sales room license allows you to operate. It's like a tasting room. You know, if you go to Napa Valley and you walk into their tasting rooms, you can taste. So we operate a tasting room, but in Colorado, a tasting room for a distillery can operate like a craft cocktail bar. So the big piece of the rule is that we can only make cocktails with the spirits that we produce. So it's caused us to be creative because there are a lot of things that we can't use, like we don't produce vermouth. So we can't make martinis with vermouth and we don't produce Campari so we don't make the traditional Negroni cocktail or things like that. If you walk into a normal cocktail bar, they're going to have all those things. So ours, we can only use the products that we make, which has caused us to be creative, causes us to create a lot of products. We have 11 that we distribute through nine different states, but we also release one to two limited releases a month of different flavors, different styles, just to give us a lot of stuff to play with and be creative with.
(00:32:07.177) LuAnn Buechler: So much fun. I can see that you're very passionate about what you do and have fun at it, and that is what I want for people: do what you love in service to people who love what you do. Now, they have a lot of those people in your community. If you could share one thing that you wish you knew before you started your first business,
(00:32:34.777) Matthew Estrin: Oh my gosh, one thing that I wish I knew before I started my first business. I mean, again, everything kind of points back to this funnel of the importance of getting into your community and becoming a known person in your community. And I do feel like I made the adjustment pretty quickly. You know, when I realized that our sales were starting to trend down and that people weren't just going to walk through my door, I made the adjustment from working in my business to working on my business. So I still go back to, you know, from day one I kind of wish I had been out there a little bit more, but it's all worked out. Everything is going to be fine. You know, I wish I knew a little bit—I was so green behind the ears in terms of reading P&L and understanding a profit, understanding a balance sheet and managing cash, and you know, so yeah, probably would have enjoyed having a little more education there. But nothing like learning by getting thrown in the deep end, that's for sure.
(00:33:32.677) LuAnn Buechler: Well, and also I believe in surrounding yourself with people who are the experts in
(00:33:37.477) Matthew Estrin: that,
(00:33:37.777) LuAnn Buechler: and you have to have an accountant in your community that you trust, know, like, and trust,
(00:33:45.477) Matthew Estrin: right?
(00:33:45.777) LuAnn Buechler: Yeah. Help me understand this, right?
(00:33:48.477) Matthew Estrin: Yep. Her name is Jenny, and she's been with me since day one. She's the best. Absolute best.
(00:33:54.577) LuAnn Buechler: No one, but no one, does this.
(00:33:58.177) Matthew Estrin: And
(00:33:58.277) LuAnn Buechler: yeah,
(00:33:58.577) Matthew Estrin: yep.
(00:33:59.477) LuAnn Buechler: And I might be a similar answer, but if someone out there listening has this burning desire in their heart to go start a business, what would you say to them to encourage them to take the leap?
(00:34:13.377) Matthew Estrin: There's a great book you can buy called, I know the owner. I'm just
(00:34:19.477) LuAnn Buechler: kidding.
(00:34:19.677) Matthew Estrin: Yeah, yeah, no, I'm just kidding. You know, I just think there's a lot of things I have always operated under. Under a piece of advice that, you know when it's a good time for a transition, when there's both a push and a pull in your
(00:34:34.077) LuAnn Buechler: life
(00:34:34.177) Matthew Estrin: And when I made the transition, I was feeling the pull towards this industry that I loved and I won't get too into that story, but there was definitely a push out of where I was to make that transition. So I hear a lot of people all the time that say things like, man, I really want to do this, but I really love my job and I really want the steady paycheck, or a very common one that I hear is my wife is not on board. I hear that one
(00:35:02.177) LuAnn Buechler: a lot.
(00:35:02.477) Matthew Estrin: Oh yeah, my wife's not on board and there's something there. Like I, you know, again I just think when the stars align, when the pull aligns and the push aligns, sometimes that push can be a spouse. Sometimes that push can be a job that no longer exists. Sometimes that push can be losing passion in your job and not liking it anymore, but when those two things align I think it's time to give it a leap.
(00:35:25.677) LuAnn Buechler: Right. That's awesome advice. And if you think about it, you can feel that you know when that push is coming.
(00:35:32.877) Matthew Estrin: Yep.
(00:35:33.577) LuAnn Buechler: And let that pull, too. Often people shut down that heart full.
(00:35:37.777) Matthew Estrin: Yep,
(00:35:38.277) LuAnn Buechler: Passion, and let that pull you forward. You can do it. I had a client formerly who was a nurse anesthetist, right? Six-figure income working for the world-famous Mayo Clinic, Aaron Rodgers. She wanted to serve people,
(00:35:56.977) Matthew Estrin: yep,
(00:35:57.877) LuAnn Buechler: wanted to be out in the community and serving people. So we had to get her husband on board because she
(00:36:03.177) Matthew Estrin: board because she
(00:36:04.577) LuAnn Buechler: breadwinner or primary, I should say, for the business. So I have tools for that to bring your spouse on board with you. So those listeners out there listening to men and have said that to him, I can help you
(00:36:17.977) Matthew Estrin: with that.
(00:36:18.377) LuAnn Buechler: You
(00:36:19.177) Matthew Estrin: Call ahead? Yes.
(00:36:20.777) LuAnn Buechler: Yeah, yes. And if you want to spend more time on your business and less time in the day-to-day tasks in your business, yes, we have the tools for that as well. Matt, you have been delightful. Everyone can go buy your book on Amazon.
(00:36:38.177) Matthew Estrin: Yes, so it's actually, it comes out October 6th, but first it's for pre-sale right now, so pre-sale, which pre-sales are very helpful for me. So if you're willing to get on there and snag it pre-sale, I'd be grateful for it. It's called 'I Know the Owner.' It's on Amazon and Barnes and Noble, or I have a website too, mattress.net. Any of those are resources. You can snag it.
(00:36:57.377) LuAnn Buechler: So it's
(00:37:04.877) Matthew Estrin: Pre-sales are a big deal. So the more pre-sales you get, the more Amazon algorithms move your book up to the top, and so we're working it pretty
(00:37:14.877) LuAnn Buechler: hard at it. That's right. Go out, buy pre-sale, although October 6th is right around the corner.
(00:37:21.477) Matthew Estrin: and like
(00:37:22.377) LuAnn Buechler: hearing this on that very day, it's possible. And so make sure I know the owner from Holy Water to Happy Hour. It's got to be a good read. So Matt, thanks again. I'm gonna come to Greeley, Colorado. We're going to do a live podcast from your
(00:37:42.077) Matthew Estrin: facility as long as you have a drink with me, I'm okay with it.
(00:37:48.977) LuAnn Buechler: Sounds great.
(00:37:49.377) Matthew Estrin: Let's do
(00:37:49.877) LuAnn Buechler: It. Go out and make your passions pay, enjoy. Have a great day.