We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Nick Corona a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Nick thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Before we get into specifics, let’s talk about success more generally. What do you think it takes to be successful?
Every single person has the ability to determine what their own success story will be. For some, it might be simple; maybe spending free time fishing, raising a family, owning a home… For others, things might be more complex; bringing world peace, finding the cure for cancer, solving world hunger… No matter your dreams, I think its important to remember that success isn’t just about accomplishing a single goal, but in recognizing your own work and celebrating everything you accomplish along the way. My dream in owning a brewery began with a simple idea and a desire to one day create a beer so good that it would change someone’s perception of craft beer for the better. As I set out to accomplish that dream, I faced numerous obstacles, hurdles, struggles, & challenges, much the same as we all face in our day to day lives. Overcoming those challenges, clearing each obstacle, working through every struggle…Those are all successes and they need to be celebrated. Life is filled with adversity, but when we take the time to slow things down and congratulate ourselves on overcoming it, that’s where we build up the strength to push forward and use that positive momentum to face the future. Focusing on positivity even in the most negative of times. It’s not always easy, but its always worth it. I love being challenged, so who knows if I’ll ever look at myself as “successful”, but as long as my life’s legacy is still being determined, I’ll continue to celebrate the little wins every step of the way.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
Owning a brewery was never a goal of mine growing up. With the last name “Corona”, it was however a topic of jokes and innuendo. Not until April 2012 did I even take a liking to craft beer, always opting for the cheapest decent beer I could find at the grocery store. The pivotal moment for me came from the first sip I had of Avery Brewing’s Maharaja. That experience for me was mind blowing. To have one beer totally change my perspective of what beer was and what it could be really inspired me. I decided that same day that I wanted to learn more about beer, how it was made, & eventually produce my beer commercially with the simple dream to give someone the same experience that this beer gave me. I spent years learning more about brewing, about the industry, & really working to understand more about the craft beer community. The first thing that took me by surprise was the openness of those in the community. I’d worked mainly in the casino industry as a casino manager for a long time and competitors as viewed as just that: your competition. In the craft beer community, sharing, supporting, & encouraging is as much a part of business as selling beer. The positive and supportive aspects of the community instantly aligned with my passion for beer and my passion for surrounding myself with positive people. There are so many good-hearted people in the community and it’s been so enjoyable to be a part of it.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
We opened at the height of COVID. While the purchase of the business began in late 2019, we opened at a time where talks of failure, doom, & despair were nearly constant. Years of careful planning, modeling, saving, & hard work was instantly derailed by a worldwide pandemic that nobody could have planned for. To make matters worse, the millions of dollars in grants, funds, & loans that were designated for small business were off limits to us because we weren’t technically in business prior to COVID. Outside of one single sleepless night where I nearly considered throwing in the towel, our entire approach was steadfast and dedicated. We set out with the mindset that if we could open a startup business and survive through a worldwide pandemic, we could accomplish anything. It’s that drive & determination that got our family run business through it and its why we’re still thriving today. We all chipped in where we could to ensure our family run business pulled through. While our initial plans were for my wife Kandy, my brother Shane, & myself to handle a majority of the business, we saw more help come from my Mom Leslie, & my brother Chad. Leslie was retired and had no intentions of becoming such an integral part of Five Suits, but she is now the glue holding all of our finances down. I’m sure when she retired from the Alcoholic Beverage Control, she never imagined that she would be the CFO of a brewery, but here she is. And my brother Chad. He’s a fulltime Firefighter in LAFD, but he wound up contributing so much of his time and efforts expecting nothing in return, that we ultimately made the decision to hand him over a portion of our ownership. Not everything is going to work out like you want it to, but if you have enough drive & ambition to keep moving forward, there’s nothing you can’t accomplish. If it was easy, everyone would do it.
Alright – let’s talk about marketing or sales – do you have any fun stories about a risk you’ve taken or something else exciting on the sales and marketing side?
As we opened during COVID, we faced one restriction after another. Sometimes it seemed as if we were playing a game of Simon Says. Simon says, “You have to sit outside”. Simon says, “You have to close for 2 weeks”. Simon says, “Nobody can stay for more than 90 minutes”. During this time, our restrictions were suddenly tied into available space in local hospital’s ICU units. When this happened, we knew that no matter how hard it was for us, we weren’t the ones who were in harm’s way staring death in the eyes on a daily basis. Those doctors and nurses were strapping on PPE gear every shift, hoping that this wouldn’t be the day they contracted COVID… It was extremely sad knowing how hard they were working with seemingly no light at the end of the tunnel. We knew we had to try and do something for them, so we developed our “Beers 4 the ICU” program. We allowed our customers to purchase a token that signified a beer. At the end of each week, we canned as many beers as we had tokens and worked to deliver them to our local front line workers. The feedback and appreciation we got from them during a time where they were so overworked and stressed was incredible. Not to mention the support that we felt from our community. We had so many good people coming in to help. It was one of our brightest moments early on. To feel that love from the community and be in a position to contribute something to those who were facing incalculable risks is something we’ll never forget.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.fivesuits.com
- Instagram: @fivesuitsbrewing
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fivesuitsbrewing/
- Twitter: @fivesuitsbrew
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/five-suits-brewing-vista
Image Credits
Mark Furman on single shot of empty brewery & Brandon Hernandez with Beer in glass next to Can photo. All others are mine.