We recently connected with Dave Goes of  Metal Spirits and have shared our conversation below.

Dave, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

More than anything, Metal Spirits is a lifestyle brand for those who cherish individual liberty, personal responsibility and that American creation called rock-n-roll. We make an incredibly smooth vodka and rye whiskey of course, but our customers (The Tribe, as we call them) consists of people who love and live the principles of Liberty, Responsibility and Rock-N-Roll.

My two partners, Jess and Liam, and I are corporate executives and we used to work together. We knew we were all going our separate ways from a career standpoint, so on a flight to Tokyo, as we were sharing some cocktails, reminiscing and getting emotional, we vowed we would work together again. Metal Spirits was born on that flight. The three of us share not only the principles of our brand but we’re also all metal heads, so we landed on Metal Spirits as the name of our company.

In short, Metal Spirits harnesses the essence of the righteously rebellious spirit and thoughtfully irreverent attitude, blends spirits with America’s finest ingredients, deploys a bit of old-world alchemy and delivers a great spirit and a great time, every time. Metal Spirits. More than just spirits, it’s a lifestyle, and If you’re one of us…Welcome to The Tribe!

Dave, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My partners and I, combined, have over 60 years of business management experience – most of that in financial services – ranging from margin lending to investment research to investment operations. We’ve all held several different titles in our careers and currently Jess is VP of customer success, Liam is a chief operating officer and I am a SVP of business and product development.

Metal Spirits is our collective side business. We are new to the spirits business but the good thing about making whiskey is it takes time to age, so we’ve used that time to dive into this new industry and learn all about the rules, regulations and sales and marketing strategies. Also, as Jess is now in the consumer products and goods industry so her day to day work and knowledge has helped us considerably as we’ve launched Metal Spirits.

Personally, I live in Naples, FL. I have three teenage children who I adore. Jess also happens to be my partner in life as well, so she and I live and work together daily on everything from Metal Spirits to our day jobs, to cutting the grass, to cooking and cleaning and raising two young men and a woman. Liam lives in London, UK, and is married with two little boys. He and his family are looking forward to moving back home soon to South Africa.

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

It’s hard to say for certain how our resilience story plays out at this point, since we only launched in October of 2022, however, it did take us five years to launch. During that time, we’ve had to learn an entirely new industry, start, finish and continue the distilling and aging process, build out a following via social media and since then, convince bars, restaurants and liquor stores to carry the “new guy” – our brand. It is a grind for sure! Some of our friends and colleagues have asked why we would do this relatively late in our careers, when most think of retiring and my answer is always the same. “Because we can and it’s fun!”

Whether it is sports, business or life, resilience is critical to anything. We’ve never met a successful person, business, team, charity etc. that didn’t have a boat load of resilience. We hope that we will continue to exhibit these qualities with Metal Spirits and more importantly, find and retain our “Tribe” for whom the brand and the products resonate.

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

In 2019 I stepped away from my dream leadership role so I could be more present at home. My three kids were starting high school and we had just moved from Illinois (which they loved) to Florida (witch they hated). Their mom and I were also going through a divorce and I was petrified that they would crumble under these circumstances. So, I left my dream job, took a role that would allow for more time with my kids and I started focusing on being a full time dad. It was the most difficult decision I’ve had to make in my personal career but in hindsight it was a no brainer. Four years later, these three kids have blossomed into amazing young adults with great academic, athletic and musical successes. By all accounts, they are well adjusted and I often hear from others the greatest compliment a parent can hear, “You have such great kids.” Of course, that isn’t all because of me. They have a great mom who loves them dearly, and Jess has also been a great role model for them as well.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://metalspirits.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/metal_spirits/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/metalspiritsFB
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/metalspirits/

Image Credits
Camera Paintbrush Photography: Steven Teed