We were lucky to catch up with Kerianne Krause recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Kerianne, thanks for joining us today. Can you talk to us about your team building process? How did you recruit and train your team and knowing what you know now would you have done anything differently?

We started Beyond Distilling Company knowing we were going to hire adults with intellectual disabilities to run the bottling line. The mission came before the investors and the LLC due to the severe need within the workforce for inclusive spaces for adults with disabilities. I spent 3 years creating a training guide for individuals that would be working in the distillery with or without a disability. As a Board Certified Behavior Analyst I fundamentally believe in having a positive working environment. If your employees are happy and healthy then you will have significantly less turnover, motivated employees to want to company to succeed, and it trickles down to the customers. Our recruiting was through local organizations that look to place adults with disabilities in the workforce. I had a friend Zach who I have known for years who was able to come in and be our first employee. He tried every part of the bottling line, helping me understand where fine and gross motor issues may come into play as well as how to structure the day to ensure there are enough break and the environment is safe. After that the hiring was always one person at a time taking a tour of the facility. Some of our employees use ASL or speak in repetitive statements (scripting) so we were very lucky to find an employee who was born deaf and knew sign, and she was willing to become a supervisor and learn the distilling aspect so we could increase the accessibility of people with varying disabilities. Everyone starts working on one aspect of the bottling line and once they are able to complete the task fluently we move along to the next part. At the beginning we assumed our staff would only participate in bottling. As we continued to grow our employees have been promoted to leadership and run the entire distillery. We are proud to have a staff that 100% identify as having a disability. I feel like we got lucky with the way we have formulated our team. Everyone enjoys coming to work and have become such good friends. There are definitely things I would have done differently, but I fundamentally believe all the mistakes made taught us a lesson that needed to be learned in order to grow.

Kerianne, 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?

In 2011, when I was 20 years old, my oldest son mason was born. Mason was diagnosed with Autism and started this journey. At 20 I was still figuring out my life so I decided to work as a behavior therapist. I got my bachelors then my masters in psychology and behavior analysis then becoming a BCBA. I worked with children on the spectrum learning ways to reduce their frustration and increase communication. In 2016 I opened my own company Building Independence Together with my best friend Melissa Wilson. In 2018 I had clients who would age out of school and left them with no social engagements or ways to find jobs. Some were deemed “unemployable” by state organizations whose sole purpose was to find jobs for adults with disabilities. I reached out to my sons godfather, and my husbands childhood friend, Tyler LaCorata who was a distiller in NY to see if he’d want to open a company in Charleston, SC with the mission of employing adults with disabilities. Tyler spoke to his friend and codistiller Ryan Sadis and they both agreed. From 2018-2020 we worked to lay down the foundation of what our company would become. One of our biggest blessings has been finding a partner and investor who not only believes in the spirits being created, but the mission behind what we are doing. Without his trust in us and believing in our mission our company would not exist. In December 2021 we opened our doors to the public! Now in 2024 you can find our products in South Carolina, Houston, TX, New York, Wisconsin, and Tennessee. Our goal is to support local nonprofits in each area that support adults with disabilities and have other companies use us as a model to fill the gaps within employment. In 2023 South Carolina passed a law that closed the gap in the federal labor law that allows employer to pay adults with disabilities nothing for their work. So many amazing nonprofits and organizations rallied to get this passed and we were lucky to be able to highlight why this was such a need and were able to spread the word on the importance of this law being passed. Having a small part of that passing will always be very meaningful to us.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I may own two businesses, but I am also a mother of 4. My oldest diagnosed with autism and when my youngest was born in 2019 she was born with nystagmus. Doctors were concerned she had a brain tumor so set up for a bunch of tests. Her tests got cancelled due to COVID and we had to wait to get those tests done. Over the course of waiting for these tests I developed Glossopharyngeal neuralgia which is a relatively rare condition characterized by severe, paroxysmal episodes of pain localized to the external ear canal, the base of the tongue, the tonsil or the area beneath the angle of the jaw. This was around the time we had secured an investor and we’re building the company from scratch. Luckily my daughter got into her mri a few months later and did not have a brain tumor. However my nerve pain persisted for 2 years. In December 2022 I received a craniotomy. Due to being such a rare disorder this was the first time this hospital had ever performed it, and the only other option was in Philadelphia but they wouldn’t take my insurance. I feel like the luckiest person on the plane that not only did I survive the surgery and no longer have the nerve pain, but my kids are happy and healthy, and my companies were able to grow and thrive. My husband is the most amazing support system and most likely the reason I was able to push through those years.

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

One lesson as a business owner and boss I had to unlearn was, just because a previous boss or manager may have acted a certain way doesn’t mean it was right and should be perpetuated. The “do it because I said so” as a manager doesn’t work as well in 2024. Employees want to know why things change or why a decision is made, and especially if it affects them and their workload they deserve to know why things are happening. Keeping employees in the know reduces stress and opens up lines of communication. If your staff can trust that coming to you will be taken seriously rather than brushed off, you’re more likely to retain a great talent pool.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.beyonddistillingcompany.com
• Instagram: Beyonddistillingcompany

Image Credits
Jodi Lee films