We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Weston Holm a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Weston, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. One deeply underappreciated facet of entrepreneurship is the kind of crazy stuff we have to deal with as business owners. Sometimes it’s crazy positive sometimes it’s crazy negative, but crazy experiences unite entrepreneurs regardless of industry. Can you share a crazy story with our readers?

One of the craziest experiences so far as a business owner was after being open for two years when a spirit brand and concept of this magnitude was starting to take notice with a local following, but then the pandemic hit. As an entrepreneur in the industry, you’re always “pivoting” to get things that work. This happens a lot in this business, then you “pivot” and “pivot” again! We rolled into producing hand sanitizer to keep income coming in and help the community. The PPP loan was only a band aid — the sanitizer helped us make it through! So, it was an unexpected amount of work that was really hard, but it was really good for our recognition after that. Then, we pivot again back to normal operations. I feel as if we are really just now getting started again with where this operation needs to be. We’re all struggling with food supply issues, so the pivoting keeps going as we work our way through it. All important factors are great and steady on all our spirit production fronts. We’re working diligently with food menu items as prices and products are sporadically available, as well as facing the staffing workforce situation. Definitely an emotional roller coaster ride, but we love what we do, so it’s a fun roller coaster to be on!

Weston, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I spent 10 years working offshore building and starting up offshore oil production facilities prior to starting Blue Clover Distillery. Mechanical engineering and process flow was by discipline craft. Similar processes and equipment in making diesel and gas (hydrocarbons) fuel is almost identical to distilling spirits. One is a crude oil and the other is a food grade product. In essence, they both light on fire. I spent the last five years of my career adventure out there planning this business. I always wanted my own business, and I believe in not leaving a skill behind, so I started jotting down all my technical and personal life skills and contacting businesses who would be a good match for me. Turned out a distillery was the answer! Then, I added the restaurant and bar to aid the business model. This led me to being able to be my own project manager and build my distillery restaurant bar as well. We did all of our own construction work on it at Blue Clover Distillery, except Plumbing, HVAC and Electrical. We needed licensed people to complete those tasks — we are very DIY around here!

We provide small-batch spirits including vodka and gin handcrafted right on our premises. Both with fruit infusions locally sourced from our ever-colorful citrus valley. So many local lemon, grapefruit and other citrus trees grow here in the Valley. We also are very active in the local bar and restaurant scene. We have the capabilities to do private labels and special made spirits that fit uniquely within their restaurant concepts. We can generate a personalized spirit that supports their cocktail menus exactly the way they want it. We also recently launched a bitters line — we noticed the market and supply chain issues with most of the European-made bitters and the difficulties of local bars getting them here, so we were capable of producing those bitters out of our distillery by federal law.

There are a few things I’m pretty proud about. First off, making it through the pandemic while continuing to grow a local spirit brand. Also, being able to support the Arizona Cardinals and the State Farm Stadium during the last NFL season with a local vodka. It was a pretty surreal accomplishment and opportunity that they allowed me to participate in last year. We hope to continue working with them in the future. I’m also very proud of the reception of the local love and support from all the accounts and the friends in the industry that continue to buy and support local. It’s a great community to be part of and could not be more thankful for it.

I am hands on — I make all the spirits that are produced in our custom copper stills made right here in America. Everything is checked and sampled by me prior to bottling and packaging for public consumption. We are all corn-based and gluten-free on all spirits and bitters. We take a huge pride in our craftsmanship and love producing top quality, handcrafted products.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

It was extremely difficult to leave behind a six-figure income mid-career with full benefits to liquidating all assets in order to go all in on my Blue Clover Distillery venture — especially with such a high percentage rate of failure right out of the gate. Living on less than 30K while still working hard through the start-up phase was no easy task. Tons of life sacrifices you do not realize you experienced been gone in the blink of an eye. But focus, dedication and mass determination kept me grinding through it all. I continue this discipline on myself as we are still growing!

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

My answer is similar to my response above in what I did to pivot through the pandemic during a start-up phase.

Contact Info:

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