Odin, you are disrupting the industry! I think you should take pride in your honest and transparent approach. It’s where the market is heading and though I’m sure it doesn’t feel like it, you’re rowing with the current.

Your product is an excellent product for craft manufacturers because of the mash, ferment, and flexible distillation ability all in one unit. That’s less square footage to rent, less permits to get, less construction to install. I can honestly say the iStill has saved our company six figures on startup costs alone as compared to traditional equipment manufacturers.

http://www.iStill.com

All of a sudden it struck me: we are making a huge mistake! We? I am making a big mistake. And if we aren’t careful, if we don’t solve it, it may grow out of control. So let’s dive in. Let’s identify the mistake I or we have made, so we can fix it as soon as possible!

Where the shoe pinches? With some distillers needing more support than others. And how we deal with that. A minority of distillers, including some of our customers, needs help with each and every step they take. It gives them comfort to know we are at their side. And – if I think about it a bit longer – we should feel honored to be invited into such an important role. A role of business consultant sometimes, or distilling coach.

For those that reach out to us in that capacity: thank you for your trust and thank you for believing that we can provide help and support. But the more I think about it – which I do because I get more and more requests for help as our organization and the craft distilling industry grows – the less it makes sense. Not the questions, I get those. Not that many want to have our opinions, because it signals how we are perceived as the industry experts. But how WE or how I deal with those questions.

If I keep things small and personal, here is the weird thing I do: I try to answer all of those questions. I try to help those specific distillers, that need more support, sometimes on a day to day basis, by acting as their de facto business consultant or distilling coach. Why that doesn’t make sense? For two reasons.

Firstly, I am not a business consultant or distilling coach. I mean, yeah, I am a MSc in Business Administration, but that’s not why customers do business with us or why distillers in general seek our advise. And, yes again, I (and many of my staff) have a huge expertise on all things related to distilling alcoholic spirits … but that’s not what customers purchased. Instead, our customers ordered a still, a recipe, or a course. And that’s where we deliver!

Our recipes win medals (the ones that matter) all over the globe. Our distillation machines enable craft distillers to make better quality spirit at lower price points. The iStill Distilling University is rated by its students as the craft distilling industry’s leading educational facility.

So … if we don’t offer business consultancy or distillery coaching (and we don’t!), why do we act as if we do? And that question brings us to the second reason why trying to help out distillers that need day to day support on their business and on running their distillery: just like you have your company to run, your distillery to manage, I (or in the broader sense: the iStill Management Team) have an obligation to run iStill. And running a disruptive and fast-growing company like iStill is no small job, no minor responsibility.

As iStill’s CEO I routinely work 60 to 80 hours a week. Our CFO? She works 50 to 60 hours per week, and often more. Our Chief Operating Officer is responsible for the manufacturing of the iStills. Not exactly a 9 to 5 job either, right? The second reason why it totally doesn’t make sense that we try to hold the hands of a minority of customers and distillers in need of sometimes daily, personal support, is that we simply do not have time to do so.

So this much becomes clear:

1. We do not offer business consultancy or distillery coaching;
2. A minority of distillers needs consultancy or coaching;
3. They reach out to us to obtain our insights and get our help;
4. We, in our willingness to help, step in shoes that are not ours to fill;
5. Creating a severe risk of underdelivering because of other obligations.

How do we solve this? I mean, writing an iStill Blog post about it is important, and may bolster us in doing a better job at explaining what we can and cannot offer, but that would neglect the questions for help that some distillers have.

So here are my questions to you. How do we, as an industry, help those that need more help, that want support at running their distillery and sometimes even their businesses? We are not equipped to do it, but are there others out there that can provide these services? Are there maybe more experienced distillers, that feel distillery coaching is a business they want to add to their portfolio? Are there maybe successful entrepreneurs out there, that want to give business consultancy and advise to distillers? And under what conditions?

If I add up the questions we get, on a daily basis, there for sure seems to be a market in need of help. Please let me know how you feel you (or the industry at large) could be of assistance.

We like potential customers to know we exist and we want the opportunity to explain the amazing technology we bring to the craft distilling industry. To that end we spend money on marketing.

Basically, our marketing strategy takes two directions. First, we create a lot of free content and share that via the iStill Blog, Distillers Weekly, and via Linked In and Facebook. Secondly, we visit tradeshows.

The online part of our marketing strategy targets generic demographics and regions. It allows us to reach a global audience. We do not have to spent a lot of money on our online campaigns, since we already have many thousands of followers. That makes it a relatively easy and affordable way to reach new potential customers and to explain the distilling solutions we bring to the industry.

The tradeshow part of our marketing strategy is more targeted to specific regions and markets. Tradeshows allow us to reach a specific audience. Since the money and energy expenditure involved in participating at a tradeshow are huge, we tend to only attend tradeshows in our biggest markets or in the market segments we want iStill to penetrate.

Having now experienced how tradeshows operate in the craft distilling industry for over seven years, we are amending our marketing strategy. Yes, online will stay the same. No, the tradeshow part will change. Let’s dive into the why and how.

There are two major reasons as to why we are revising our tradeshow policy. First, too many tradeshows are self-serving and organized by for-profit organizations, that don’t care about you starting a distillery. They rather have you spend that money with them instead. Many tradeshows are preventing rather than stimulating the industry to grow. They are money traps and you are the ones paying the price.

How you can distinguish the bad ones? Here are a few clues:

• Do they have a medal competition for which you have to pay to participate?
• Did the number of medals increase with the growing number of paying participants?
• Is the tradeshow a platform for paid consultancy presentations?
• Do those presentations leave you more bewildered than before?

The more of the above questions are answered with a “yes”, the more likely it is that you registered for an inferior product. Paid medal competitions are a great source for tradeshow income. The more awards you hand out, the more participants you get (and vice versa). The consultants that perform on tradeshows usually aren’t paid. The paid presentations are another great revenue stream for the tradeshow organizer. How the consultants share in the spoils? They get to baffle you with bullshit, enlarge your problems, and make sure you definitely need to hire a consultant.

How they get away with that? That question is simple to answer: in the land of the blind, one-eye is king. You know less and are in need of information, they pretend to know it all and that’s why you visit and spent money.

Secondly, tradeshows are losing their relevance quickly. In times of the internet, there are easier ways to connect. In times of Covid-19 there are smarter ways to connect. Did you see how all of the tradeshows all of a sudden CAN go online, these days? Interesting …

And talking about relevance … how about tradeshows highlighting – or at least supporting – the technological advancement the craft distilling industry so desperately needs in order to compete with Big Alcohol? We haven’t seen much effort there, as most distilling tradeshows love the financial contributions of legacy still manufacturers too much. Traditional equipment suppliers hate innovation. They are making money of you just fine. Why have that business model disrupted by new technological break-throughs, right?

Having answered the “why”, here is more on the “how”. From now onwards, we’ll only participate at tradeshows that put the industry interests before their own interests. And we’ll only support those that support the technological advancement of the craft distilling industry. To put it bluntly: the rest of them, the ones who’s business goal seems to be to screw you over for their own benefit, well, they can go f*ck themselves.

We have seen too much of the crap that’s going on behind the scenes. From rigged medal competitions (where sponsors get to pick the winners), to thieving organizers (that land sponsorship money, raised to finance traineeships, in their own pockets), to tradeshow hosts that make a living out of reselling your commercial information (while you pay for the entrance ticket).

Our industry deserves better than that. Our industry will get a better treatment than that. What we’ll do, to help achieve that, is this: we’ll start our very own tradeshow. Its characteristics? Here you go:

• Online!
• It will be free of charge to visitors;
• Everybody can participate;
• Information will be shared free of charge;
• Customers rank product and service providers based on their user experience;
• Product and service providers are invited to discount tradeshow visitors;
• Yes, technological developments will get attention;
• No, your information will not be used commercially;
• No, it won’t have a medal competition! 🙂

I feel that we are in a unique position to make a difference and to show the industry how much real value a genuine tradeshow can offer. “A unique position” as in:

• We have a thriving community with hundreds of craft distillers;
• The iStill Blog produces content every second day;
• And sees 50.000 visitors per year, reading well over 100.000 posts;
• iStill’s Facebook page has over 20.000 followers;
• And reaches over 1 million people per year;
• Our website http://www.iStill.com attracts 50.000 visitors per year;
• With over 200.000 pages being viewed;
• Our eNewsletter “Distillers Weekly” has 2.500 subscribers;
• And grows with around 100 new readers every week.

To put things into perspective: our online presences is already way bigger than all the craft distilling tradeshows (genuine and less than genuine) combined!

Give us a few months to set it up. Stay in touch. Share your ideas. Propose our initiative to others that might be interested. Reach out to me directly and inform me of companies that deserve to participate. Service or product providers, that want to help craft distillers advance: email me and let’s figure out how you can participate. And if there is anything I forget, please let me know that as well.

The iStill Tradeshow is coming to town …

Introduction

So my son is getting married and and our youngest daughter is baking the wedding cake. I am tremendously proud of him, taking that step towards commitment, and of her, taking on the responsibility of baking that cake. The try-out baking session of the cake, that she did last week, showed that she could do it. The cake looked great, was perfectly baked, and tasted deliciously. And that got me thinking on how she learned that skill, what tooling and mindset she needed to become successful at baking cakes at such a young age. Guess what? There are a lot of similarities with distilling!

Tooling

To be able to bake a cake you need an oven. The oven is installed in a kitchen. The kitchen that is installed in your house, probably. Years ago, someone came by and build the kitchen and installed the oven. He knew how to build kitchens and he knew how to install ovens.

My wife was the first one to use the oven. It was quite modern and not exactly like the gas-fired oven she was used to working with. The first thing she did, was read the manual. Following the instructions in that manual, she became quite good at using the oven quickly. The instructions helped, but what helped even more was that she had been cooking and baking for many, many years.

That bids the question: “Is the oven the tool or is it the experience that counts?” A weird question, you probably think, because the answer is obvious: the oven and the experience are both equally important.

Learning how to bake a cake

If you are new to cooking and baking, there is no experience-base to draw from. And however good the manual of the oven is, well, if you don’t understand an oven, simply because you never worked with an oven, it may feel daunting to use one for the first time.

So now imagine my youngest daughter wanting to learn how to bake cakes. Without experience in baking or oven-use. How would she go about this? How did she go about it?

Here is what she did: she took a baking class. At the baking class, she learned the basics. The basics of how to use an oven and how to bake a cake. With the added knowledge and experience, she started to bake her first cakes, replicating what she’d learned at baking class. Building-up experience, this soon proved to be less and less of a challenge. And as she became better and better at baking the teacher’s cakes, she took an huge step forward and decided she was going to try a new recipe!

The first thing she did, was buy a book with cake recipes. She choose a recipe to her liking, and started making that cake. The result? An okay cake. Not spectacular in looks or flavor, but okay. A pretty descent first attempt.

Now, if you know my daughter, you’ll understand that “pretty descent” is, in her dictionary, simply not good enough. How did she go about her business? How did she learn to make this new recipe to perfection?

The first thing she did, was sign up for an online forum on baking cakes. The second thing she did was make the same recipe again. Based on her (modest) experience and with some tips from fellow cake bakers, the second attempt came out looking and tasting good. The third attempt, again helped by forum members and her deepened experience and understanding, was perfect. She now shifted her attention to new recipes, different cooking books, and – finally – to writing and making her own recipes.

Learning how to distill

As I mentioned before, seeing my daughter become more and more professional at baking cakes, taught me a lot about how we learn to distill. In fact, it opened my eyes as to why some learn the craft faster than others. And why some seem to never learn anything ever at all.

The ingredients you need for baking successfully are pretty much mirrored by distilling. On a superficial level and on a deeper, existential level. Let’s start out with the obvious. A baker needs an oven and a basic understanding of that oven. He or she also needs a basic understanding of and experience with baking, a recipe, and ingredients.

Just like the distiller needs a still and a basic understanding of that still. He or she also needs a basic understanding of and experience with distilling, a recipe, and ingredients.

But that is not all. It isn’t just like this, that the baker follows the recipe and becomes successful. The recipe gives clues and advice but baking a cake is much more than following the recipe. The baker – and the distiller – need a standard operating procedure, based on his ever growing experience. Like placing the baking paper and flowering it with a certain technique, like buttering the cake-form, or working with a specific blender, and purchasing specific ingredients, that may or may not need additional work processes before they can be incorporated. It’s not the oven that bakes the cake, no, the baker bakes the cake! The oven is merely the tool (or even better: one of the tools) or instrument the baker uses. And so is the recipe.

Equally, the distiller needs to understand that a recipe is only the basis for the development of a spirit- and distillery-specific Standard Operating Procedure. Like what mill do you use to crack your grain? What size do you crack what grain? How (and how fast) do I add the grains to the mash water? Do I put the gin herbs in the boiler directly or do I bag ‘m first? How do I clean my still after a run? How and where do I discard the spent grains and herbs? What yeast do I use? At what temperature? Do I follow the instruction of – for example – one gram per liter, or do I deviate? And for what reason? To achieve what goal? It is not the still that makes your whiskey or gin, it is you, the distiller, that makes the spirit! The still is merely a tool that the distiller uses. And so is the recipe.

Looking into the kitchen

And there is more. The oven is situated in the kitchen. The kitchen must be well laid-out for the baker to be able to successfully make his or her cakes. The kitchen must be located in a house (or restaurant or bakery) that provides gas, electricity, ventilation, water, a draft-free, dry, and comfortable working environment.

Just like a still is situated in the still room, and that still room must be well laid-out for the distiller to be able to successfully produce his spirits. The still room is located in a distillery that provides gas, electricity, ventilation, water, and a draft-free, dry, and comfortable working environment.

A well laid-out kitchen or distillery helps with the production of better cakes and spirits, but it is important to understand two things here. First, the more experience you gain, the better you will be able to design the kitchen or distillery that you need. Secondly, it is not the kitchen that bakes the cakes. It is not the distillery that produces the spirits. The distillery or still room provide you with the equipment and environment for you to produce your spirits!

What made my daughter successful at baking

Was it the recipe? Was it the oven or kitchen? Was it her ever growing experience? Even though all of the above plays a role, there were basically three reasons why she became successful:

1. Passion;
2. Willingness to learn;
3. Ownership.

She was (and is) passionate about baking cakes. Without passion for baking cakes, why bother? Why put in all those hours? How to deal with all those times when you failed, when it isn’t from a perspective of passion?

But passion alone doesn’t cut it. Passion needs to translate into the willingness to learn. To make mistakes and dissect them and learn, in order to grow into a better baker. Or equally: a better distiller. You become better at doing something when you allow yourself to make mistakes. But mistakes are only good as long as you learn from them.

Ownership is the last critical element to success. If you make a mistake, own it. If something does not go well, own it. If somebody else made a mistake, own it by realizing your instructions should have been clearer. You need to own your distillery, your still room, your still, your recipe, your SOP and – especially! – your mistakes.

What makes a successful distiller

The same critical success factors that applied to my daughter, are relevant to distillers. The ones that get it, the ones that learn, the ones that become real craft distillers … are the ones that are passionate about spirits and distilling, that are willing to learn, and that own their operation.

“Operation” is the key word, here. “Operational competence” is all the space in between the recipe, the still, the ingredients, your distillery, and the spirits you produce. The sum of all experience, of your failures, the learning and turning points in your professional life. And here it comes: operational competence is the one and only thing that nobody can teach you.

People can advise you, others may consult you, some may correct or inform you, but you, as the person responsible for the spirits you make, are the only one who can own this “space in between”. Operational competence is like the stuff that glues it all together. It’s what makes your venture more than the sum of the parts.

Do you agree with me that, without passion, without the willingness to learn, without a complete sense of ownership over your operation, running a successful bakery or distillery is impossible? Do you agree with me, when I state that passion, willingness to learn, and ownership are not things that can be taught or trained? I strongly feel that these come from within. And I see time and again, that people that are passionate about distilling, that have the ability and willingness to learn, and that own and understand every aspect of their craft and business, including each and every fault anyone ever made, are the ones that progress, that have a steep learning curve, and that become successful.

The ones that fail, all too often show a different attitude. Yes, they may have visited all the courses. Yes, they may have had a famous consultant write them a recipe, Yes, they may have bought the best stills and hired the best master distiller money could buy. But if they themselves have no passion, no ability or wish to learn and understand … then it is that attitude that prevents them from learning, growing, and becoming successful.

Examples for growth and decline

When my daughter made that new cake for the first time, the result wasn’t perfect. I asked her if it were the oven. “No,” she said, “it didn’t give any alarms, so it must have worked fine.” So I asked if it was the recipe. She denied that the recipe was flawed. She had spoken to many other bakers on the forum and the recipe was fine. I asked about the kitchen, the electricity, the water, and the ingredients. But this is the answer she gave me: “In the end I just needed to learn how to bake this specific cake. It is okay now. I made one or two mistakes, that I now know how to do differently. No worries. I can make this recipe over and over again, now!”

Passion, the willingness to learn, and ownership over the process as well as the mistakes she made, created operational competence. And over time this operational competence transformed into operational excellence. As in: she just looks at a new cake, maybe reads the recipe once, and then makes it to perfection. She doesn’t even have to consult the oven manual anymore. She grew her hobby, her experience, her talents. As she got rewarded by success, she grew as a person. Isn’t that an amazing recipe for growth?

Now for a recipe for decline, let’s take an imaginary distiller. He buys a top-of-the-line still. He hires a consultant to write his recipes. He buys in the best (or at least most expensive) grains and yeast and barrels. His spirits, though, suck.

Because it is a business (and not a passion), his distillery needs to make money asap. He didn’t allow himself time to learn and grow. He needed to hit the market running! Best still plus best recipe consultant plus best grains, yeast, and barrels equals spirit quality equals commercial success, right? Wrong.

Too often the above approach lacks in passion, does not create the time or culture to learn from mistakes, and when something goes wrong there is a lack of ownership and understanding, that makes the owner lash out at the everyone else: the still, the recipe, the grains, the yeast, the economy, or the barrels. And probably a combination of the above. Too often, the lack of passion, learning, and owning are compensated by a feeling of entitlement that blinds the distillery owner for his own mistakes.

Imagine that my son asked our youngest daughter to bake their wedding cake, knowing that she had never baked before, that she didn’t particularly like it, and that she was interested in anything but wedding cakes. Do you think the wedding cake project would have become a success? Do you think that it would have become a success if my son had offered her a lot of money to do it anyhow?

Even though we all know the answer to both questions is negative, why – upon entering the craft distilling industry – do so many people forget that it isn’t about the oven, the recipe or the ingredients? The oven, the recipe, and the ingredients only help the baker with the right attitude. Success favors those that are doing what they love to do. Success favors those that are willing to sacrifice many, many hours, making many, many mistakes. Success favors those that own their business, and every detail of it.

Success is a result of your operational excellence, and the oven, recipe, and ingredients (for the baker) or still, distillery, and grains (for the distiller) are just the tools that you work with. Better tools or recipes matter only to better bakers and better distillers. Put differently: those that do not aim to improve their craft cannot be saved by any tool or recipe.

How we help

Phew! This Sunday Musing shit is hard work! One thought led to another. My daughter’s baking adventures led me to think about how her learning applies to craft distillers, especially new market entries. And now, a logical and inescapable follow-up question springs to mind: “Having learned all this, how does iStill translate this into making the craft distilling industry better and stronger?” Let’s look at what we offer and analyse what’s missing or what we should do or explain better.

First and foremost, we build ovens. Well, stills, actually, but you get what I mean. Tools to help you bake that imaginary cake, stills that help you produce amazing spirits. We do not sell you the kitchen, nor the house or restaurant or bakery that the oven is placed in. In other words: our stills (or better: your iStill) need water and electricity and space. They don’t come with it, so you’ll have to provide it. Or do you think that baking cakes in an oven outside, in the pouring rain is a good idea? Or that running a wood oven in-house without a chimney is?

Secondly, we have an amazing educational facility for you to take part in. The iStill Distilling University is considered the best training program in the distilling industry by both iStill customers and other distillers. We teach you about the still, the grains, the yeast, the barrels, and more. But we cannot fill the empty space in between, where you develop your operational competence. Mind you: we have an iStill Mini for you to train with, but you need to put in the hours, the miles, the mistakes, the runs. You, not us. And the iMini is just that: a mini still. How about cracking your grains, transporting them into the still, cleaning afterwards, bottling, labelling, corking, selling, book-keeping, mashing, fermenting, improving, etcetera? Operational excellence is needed everywhere and it is your biggest task, challenge, and responsibility to develop it.

We provide you with a recipe, if you purchase iStill recipe development. But a recipe is not a Standard Operating Procedure. You are responsible for your own SOP. And, yes, you can use the iStill University Facebook Group to help you out there. To get other people’s advise. Most recipes have been made before. Most mistakes too. But participating and giving back – next to taking advise offered by others – is a responsibility that lays with you.

It is our passion, our willingness to learn, and the fact that we own topics like still design, recipe development, spirits production, as well as all the associated mistakes we make, that has made iStill into the industry leading technology powerhouse that it is. But the above has also taught me that there is a limit to what we can do for you. As there is a minimum to what you, as a (future) craft distiller need to do.

We’ll design and manufacture the best metaphorical ovens in the world. We can help create amazing recipes. We provide a community of “bakers” that are willing to share and help. We teach you the fundamentals of cake baking at the iStill University. But if your first recipe, your first cake does not come out of the oven as good as it could be, see it as a challenge that you own and as a situation from which you can learn and grow. Only call the oven manufacturer if there is an alarm triggered. Only criticize the recipe after you did your due diligence and achieved operational excellence.

Here is what we don’t do and cannot do. And – with all the support we give you – this is where we should have done a better job at explaining our abilities and inabilities to help. You need to be passionate, willing to learn, and have a sense of complete ownership over your distillery and the spirit production processes involved. You need to develop your own operational excellence. Not because we do not want to help you, but simply because on these topics we cannot help you. The only person that can help you is yourself. You, who wants to become a craft distiller.

At your service …

Odin.

http://www.iStill.com