We recently connected with Ashley Blankenship and have shared our conversation below.

Ashley, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – walk us through the story?

If you would have asked me a few years ago, I would have told you I’m pretty risk averse because I like to feel a certain sense of physical safety. But, as I’ve gotten older, I’ve realized my choices throughout my life have been extremely risky emotionally. While I have zero aspirations to jump out of a plane, I’m often willing to be spontaneous and completely change the trajectory of my life. I think the biggest risk I’ve ever taken is starting Red Rocks Spirits. Owning a business is so incredibly difficult. It’s probably the hardest thing I’ve ever done, it’s also very exciting. I never know what the day will hold. Even when I wake up thinking it’s going to be a simple day, inevitably something happens to change all that. I enjoy having to solve the puzzle of problems I face every day. It definitely keeps me on my toes. One example of this roller coaster ride I find myself on is the problem of labeling our bottles. When we first started, we had a rectangular bottle and we were labeling everything by hand. It got to the point where we couldn’t keep up any more, which is great, but poses an issue. We couldn’t find anyone in the area who could label rectangular bottles for us. We decided to find our own machine. We didn’t have any money so we had to buy used. We found the cheapest one for sale on Ebay, bought it, and the next day my husband took a flight out to Wisconsin, and drove it back in a rental truck because it was cheaper than freight. This machine was so old, we couldn’t get it to work properly. We decided to go with a round bottle and screen print instead of paper label. We were so disappointed, but we didn’t have the heart to throw the huge, old, clunky machine away. It sat for quite a while in our garage until we got a warehouse big enough to fit it, then it sat for a while in our warehouse. Finally, one day we came up with an idea to repurpose it and turned it into a heat tunnel for our capsules and it ended up saving us a ton of time and effort during bottling, increasing our production and lowering costs by a significant amount. It’s a really ugly heat tunnel, but it works great and the bottles come out pretty. Risky and creative wins the game! Things like that happen every day.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

When my husband lost his job due to medical reasons, we were really scared. We have 3 kids and were desperately searching for the next way we would put food on the table. We came across the opportunity to purchase a spirits company and, honestly, it took some convincing. It was such a huge departure from anything we’ve ever known, but once the seed was planted, it was hard to think about anything else. We became obsessed with learning everything we could about the business and gathering advice from anyone who gave us the time. The more I learn, the more I find there is to learn, so I’m guessing we’ll always be learning, but I’m proud of how much we’ve grown in the past 2 years since starting this adventure. We know what it’s like to have great taste on a budget. It’s not always easy to find high quality products that are affordable. Our goal is to always offer the best we can without gouging just because we can. Our prices won’t be the cheapest, but they’ll always be fair. We always want to offer the highest value possible because we believe that when you drink well, you feel better and enjoy your time a little more, too. We are so proud to say that we are quickly expanding to locations all over Colorado and have become the “Official Vodka of the Colorado Rockies,” as well as “The Official Vodka of the Colorado Spartans,” Denver’s new arena football team! It’s so validating to see that people are enjoying Red Rocks Vodka because we put so much time and care into offering a great product at a fair price. Sometimes we’re working so hard with our heads down, and it’s amazing when we look up to see the joy we’re bringing through our efforts.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

The lesson I had to unlearn was that a contract would save me from risk or damages. I always felt secure when I had someone sign a contract. Like it was some magical thing that protected me from getting hurt. I have learned very quickly that it’s so far from the truth. I’ve been burned a couple times in the past 2 years of owning my business because the other party refused to abide by the contract. They knew I wouldn’t sue because it would cost me more to hire a lawyer than they owed. That’s not to say, don’t bother with contracts, they’re still important, but what’s more important is carefully judging who you do business with. You can never be 100% sure and there’s always a risk when doing business, but learning who you can trust and who you can’t is super important. My mind doesn’t typically go to how I can benefit over others, I tend to be too giving, so that’s been a really difficult lesson to learn. Trying to think of all the angles is impossible but very important.

How’d you meet your business partner?

My partner in business is my partner in life! My husband handles the sales for Red Rocks Spirits. I met him when I was 15. I was a touring recording artist at the time and had a show in Washington where he lived. My manager knew his family and offered them tickets to the show. He came with his mom and brothers. I remember seeing him from the stage and thinking, “Wow!!” I didn’t think too much of it since my handlers were very strict about me never giving away my number or anything to anyone. I found out after the show that I had an in! I was so shy I barely said anything to him and thought that was the end of it. Come to find out, when he first saw me, he grabbed his bother and said, “I’m in love!” My manager gave him my email address and we had a long distance relationship until we got married. We’ll be married 20 years in February! It hasn’t always been easy, but it’s always been right.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.redrocksspirits.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/redrocksspirits/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/redrocksspirits

Image Credits

Luke Spawalogy
Michael Walker