Witness Distillery: roots in ag

Shay

Foulk: Welcome back everyone to another episode of the Ag View Pitch. Today you have Shay Foulk with Rick Radliff of Witness Distillery. And, and Rick, I'm really looking forward to today's conversation. I appreciate you taking the time, and I was wondering if we could maybe just get a little bit of a background on, on kind of who you are and what you're about.

Rick

Radliff: Sure. Well, thanks for the opportunity to speak with you. This morning. It should be fun. I look forward to it. So yeah, I'm Rick Radcliffe, and my wife and I own what we call Witness Distillery in Vandalia, Illinois. And originally from Illinois, central Illinois, about 60 miles north of here around Decatur. Born and raised, generally speaking, there. Not on a farm or from a farm, but certainly very familiar with growing up through friends and family with farming operations. And that's kind of what drew me into, into ag, even though that's not what my dad did as he, as he got older. And so Central Illinois based, but have lived all over the US in different roles and with different companies that I worked for, but actually just retired from Pioneer Hybrid about 3 months ago and now fully immersed in this distillery operation. Out of Illinois.

And we can talk about other things as you have questions, if you do, about some of the things in between. But that's, that's where we're at today. Yeah, a little bit on my background.

Shay

Foulk: Congratulations on the retirement, and I'm sure people kind of, you know, perked up as to how you made that transition into where you're at today, and we're going to get into that. But, you know, one thing I would ask you is when you mentioned that you're not, uh, you didn't grow up on a farm, you're not from a farming background necessarily. I guess, what influenced you to kind of go into the world of agriculture, uh, as the first question? And the second question is, you know, a lot of times in the ag industry we're guilty of saying, well, if they're not from a farm, they maybe don't understand agriculture. Uh, did you ever see that as a barrier to some of the people that you were working with, or did you maybe see that in a positive light?

Rick

Radliff: Yeah, great question. So Just to kind of date myself, I'm 56, almost 57. All right. And certainly when I started, when I chose the path to go to college and focus on ag, really plant and soil science and weed science at the time, it was rather unusual for somebody to go into production agriculture and in that end of the business. Having not been from a farm. But my dad, you know, was born and raised on a farm. Again, this was decades ago, but left because other opportunities, I'll call it, in town that kind of drew him away so he could support a family at that time. But he had friends that were, you know, that farmed, and we spent a lot of time with them, not only, you know, in row crop, but also with their cattle and hogs at time, certainly not the production, uh, that there is today in terms of, of, uh, confinement hog operations and all that.

But back, you know, a few decades ago, wasn't quite that intense. But certainly that kind of spawned my love for ag. And, uh, candidly, I, when I was in high school, I swore up and down I'd never go to college and screwed around for about 3 years after high school and, uh, had an accident, uh, on the job that I had and decided, you know what, it's time to get serious about life. And That's when I decided to pursue ag and get serious about it. And when I did, candidly, that probably that 3-year hiatus from school and a chance to, I guess, maybe find myself and get some direction paid off because when I went, I took it very seriously. Unlike maybe some others who were, you know, jumped right from high school into college. For me, it was, I had to pay my way. So Um, you know, I wanted to get a good return on the investment.

Shay

Foulk: We see that in agriculture a lot too, you know, operations that started as part of a transition, you know, maybe with a family legacy there in the farming operation. Sometimes it doesn't mean quite as much when you jump into that fresh out of high school, fresh out of college, when, when you're younger and maybe don't know any better, uh, versus those who, you know, are starting out on their own, you know, trying to make their own way looking at, you know, maybe some tighter business-making decisions. And so I think that's interesting of, you know, how you say that about going to college and, well, it was time to buckle down and I was there and I was committed. So a good perspective on that and kind of your background. So let's talk a little bit on, you know, how did you choose the path of going to Pioneer? I mean, you were with them for a long time.

I think you said 23 years, is that right? Correct. So, so what, you know, what kind of pulled you to Pioneer as you decided that you wanted to be a part of the industry of agriculture? Or, or, you know, you worked actually somewhere else before that. So talk a little bit about that.

Rick

Radliff: Okay, certainly. Yeah, so after college, it was a bachelor's in plant and soil science and a master's in weed science. Went into crop protection business for about 9 years and worked for a company that's no longer in business., and that company was called American Cyanamid. And, uh, they had dominant market share in soy, in the soybean herbicide business, about 60%, uh, at its peak. Um, and really enjoyed that. That's, uh, that's his first job out of college. And we moved around South Dakota, New Jersey, Denver, Michigan, and, uh, spent 9 years with them. But what happened, I think, is, and there's kind of a, I guess, a lesson here as I look back, Things change and you got to be ready for change. And after 9 years with, with Cyanobed and having just a great time, Roundup Ready soybeans were introduced in '96, '97.

And of course, you know, at the time we thought, well, how big will this get? And we soon learned how big and how dominant that technology would be. And so that, as we saw things change internally there and in the marketplace, and I decided that I wanted to move into the seed business. And out of crop protection. And when I decided that, I competed so hard against Monsanto at the time that that really wasn't a place for me. I had good friends who went there, but for me, it really— I directed my attention towards Pioneer, pursued a position with them, and actually wanted to work for Pioneer to such a degree that I really kind of took it down a level or two. From where I was at Scianna, but moved back to Illinois, back close to home, and had just a great experience as a district sales manager around Champaign and was there for about 2 years as a DSM and just had a great group of reps.

And one of the things I told them when I, I mean, they were skeptical because at that time, it's not so unusual today to see folks move around between different segments of the business, but at that time, I was probably the third person who had come into Pioneer in a field-level position out of a crop protection company, and it was very unusual. Right. So the sales reps that were, you know, immersed in that company for many of them for years, who kind of looked at me with a skeptical eye, rightly so, because I didn't know the seed business. So the approach I took was, I can help you with your customers with crop protection questions. And at the same time, you train me in what it's in the seed business and what it means to represent Pioneer in that piece of the business. And you can't fool people in what you don't know.

You know, you have to be confident that you can learn and bring something to the table. But they knew that they knew a lot more about seed and the Pioneer brand and our products than I did. So that's kind of the direction or the approach I took. It worked well.

Shay

Foulk: Good. You know, you said something there that I think is key looking at, uh, you have to be, you have to be ready for change. Uh, you have to have that preparation and understanding that things are going to change and you have to adapt to it. So with that kind of major career shift, is there anything you learned out of that that you maybe applied moving forward on just positioning yourself to be ready for whatever came at you, or how did you kind of adapt that? Into your life?

Rick

Radliff: Mm-hmm. Yeah. So, uh, in, in terms of, uh, that first role, um, as a DSM, uh, was there about 2 years, then rolled into, uh, Northwest Iowa as an area manager for Pioneer for about 5 years. Then back to, to Illinois as the business unit sales manager for Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and the Delmarva. Out east. And in every role that I had, I had great people, not only that worked with me but for me. And I think the number one thing that one can do is find the folks that you can trust, gain their trust, and listen to them. Because our, you know, the growers, our customers, the Pioneer reps that I work with, They had a pulse on what was going on in the trenches, you know, in the field.

But one of the things that I would bring to the table and others, you know, in roles you would hope would have some insight, be able to have taken the time and had the resources that could say, here's where we're going. Here's how industry is changing. And today, farmers are very astute at that because the pace of change is so fast. That they know they've got to really be in tune and stick their heads up and look around. But as I look back, you know, 20, 25 years ago, that wasn't necessarily the case as much. So one of my roles and the role of, you know, the companies I work for, including Pioneer, was to say, here's what's over the horizon. Now, how can we help you prepare for that? Whether you're a farmer, whether you're a supplier, i.e., a Pioneer rep, And so that's what I learned.

One of the key things was not only look at what's happening each and every day, but it's even more important to look over the horizon and surround yourself with people that you can trust that can do both.

Shay

Foulk: Do you think that's just as important today when we look at the pace of how quickly things are changing? You know, we hear sometimes that operations struggle with, I'm trying to focus on what I'm doing here today, right now, and get good at that. How can I focus on so many things that are coming at us in the future? Do you think that's just as relevant, or do, you know, kind of producers and those involved in the ag industry maybe need to strike a balance between those?

Rick

Radliff: It's, I would say it's every bit as important today as what it's been. It's more important and will continue to be moving ahead. And you nailed it with Again, the pace of change is so rapid that any individual, I believe, I mean, one can be an exceedingly competent and hardworking and competent individual, but you can't know it all. And it's about building a team around you and the right number of people, not too big, not too small. And I don't, that's going to vary by by operation, but building a team that you can rely on that can bring perspectives to you and help you look at all dimensions, whether it's marketing, whether it's inputs, whether it's crop protection, whether it's seed, technology, you know, equipment, all those things, and build a team that can benefit from what you share with them, but as importantly, what they can bring to you.

So yeah, it's more important today than it ever has been. And it comes down to the pace, pace of change and technology.

Shay

Foulk: So you mentioned, you know, you recently retired here a few months ago and, uh, you know, kind of made a transition into a different part. But, uh, one thing that I would ask you, as you, as you wrapped up your time at Pioneer and wrapped up your time kind of in the production agriculture world, any, any last pieces of, of wisdom or advice or anything else you'd like to share with the witness or with the, uh people listening to the podcast here— I almost called them witnesses, I guess that's a part of the Witness Distillery— but, uh, you know, the people listening to the podcast here, of, of kind of what you took away from your time in that side of the ag world, uh, that you wish you could share with them.

Rick

Radliff: Um, sure. And I think it applies to any— it applies to life, uh, whether it's your personal life, whether it's business. I had a good coach back when I first started right not long after I got out of school and started in crop protection, he said, you know, life's about deposits and withdrawals. And, you know, if you're always making withdrawals from people without having made deposits, you're going to have a hard time in life and relationships, whether they're personal or business. So I strive, not always, you know, as successfully as I'd like, but hopefully more often than not, to make deposits with people, um, knowing that because it's a good thing to do to build relationships, but also, uh, on occasion, that team that you work with and the people that you trust, you're going to make withdrawals from too.

And so, um, it's always good to be in the black, uh, and be in the positive, uh, so that when you need help and support, that you can call on that team and the people that you trust and around you and they've got your back and they're willing and ready to help you because you've done well for them too. So deposits and withdrawals, it's, man, it applies so often in all aspects of life and everything that we do.

Shay

Foulk: I think that's a phenomenal analogy. One thing that we talk about, you know, kind of from our perspective, whether it's at speaking events or just working with operations one-on-one is, are you putting people on the balance sheet? You know, the people that are part of your team. We put down the equipment that we have, we put down the buildings and the land and everything else on the balance sheet, but probably the most important part of that is the people that you have on your team and the value that they provide. And kind of what I heard you say there is you need to have it as part of your accounting system too. You know, you need to be thinking about what are we contributing? What value are we bringing? And that's just as important to make sure that you're providing as much, if not more value to all the people that you work closely with. I think that's an awesome analogy.

Thank you for sharing that.

Rick

Radliff: So, if there's one thing that the last 15 to 18 months has taught us, people are— you can't thrive, you can't survive, let alone thrive without good people. And yeah, good point.

Shay

Foulk: Oh, that's great. So, you made a big step. You made a transition. You retired out of that portion of the industry, but you didn't retire from work. Uh, you know, you took a different path. Let's talk specifically about Witness Distillery. I would love to learn a little bit about the background. Where did this idea come from? How did you decide to jump into it? And what's it look like today?

Rick

Radliff: Sure. Um, yeah, so when I was working for Pioneer and was located in Des Moines, uh, you know, our headquarters at the time and still is Johnston, Iowa. And so I was living in Des Moines and on the weekends I start, I bought a little still, it was 10-gallon onion bulb still. And back then I bought it off of eBay. Now today you'd probably shop Amazon, you know, Amazon is everything it seems like, but eBay was the place to go. And again, about 9 years ago, and I started to just play around making rum because rum is one of the easiest distilled spirits there is to make. Making whiskey is much more complex. So I would take a couple 5-gallon buckets and those were my fermenters. Today we have 550-gallon stainless steel fermenters. At that time, a couple of 5-gallon buckets, and that's what I would use.

I would make my rum wash in that, ferment it in the bathtub so that if I had a mess, I could just turn the shower head on and clean it up in the bathtub. My wife didn't care for that, but it seemed to work. Yeah. And then I would do my distilling in the garage behind my garage door. With a garden hose coming in one side of the garage door and another one going out so I could feed the condenser with cool water. And I started making rum in the garage and running that off. And it was fun. And I did that probably a dozen times. I gave a lot of product to family and friends and I flavored it in all kinds of flavors to the point where it's like, well, here comes Rick with some more rum. I think we've got enough. And so I decided, well, that's enough rum. And I decided then I wanted to make whiskey. And trying to make whiskey at home is much more complex than making rum.

Again, rum just being made from water, sugar, molasses, and yeast. And so, actually, I got ahold of a fella in Des Moines who had a small distillery at the time and met up with him. He was quite a bit younger than me, but a very sharp, sharp cat. And started spending a lot of time with him. And learned from him how to make just about everything one could make. And I spent time with him on the weekends and he taught me a lot, taught us a lot, my wife and I, all the way from getting our federal permit to bonding facility and getting your bonding in place to every label that you have for any product that you make, whether it's whiskey, rum, vodka, which we make all three. Has to be approved by the TTB, the Tax and Trade Bureau, and all the dynamics around how to, how to get that submitted and create a proper label.

He helped us with that and also helped us, uh, with, uh, you know, creating products. Okay. And, and then finally, uh, he and I built our still. It's 550-gallon stainless steel still with a big, uh, 18-inch copper column. And, uh, we built the mash tun, condenser, and all that, moved it in here a few years ago, and on weekends and vacation time in the last few years. We've set that up and we started cranking out whiskey in February of 2019. And today have about 5,500 gallons of bourbon, rye, 5-grain bourbon, and rum barrel aging here on premises. And we continue to crank away and make and barrel. And we opened to the public in October, my wife and son did. And then my retirement, then I've been able to dedicate more time. So it's been a lot of fun. A lot of fun.

I was able to take a lot of what I did for the last 32 years in ag and apply it to this, including— it's amazing how little many distillers know about grain and truly know about grain and the various grains you use, from corn to wheat to oats to rye to malted barley. And so that's been a piece that over the last many years has helped me in this, but also marketing. Sales, financials and all. So it's been good. A lot of folks are successful at making product. I'm not going to say it's easy to make spirits, but marketing is the key. Because if you've got a warehouse full of barrels that people aren't interested in it or they don't know about you and you don't differentiate yourself, then you've got a lot of barrels on hand.

Shay

Foulk: So a couple questions I have out of that. You mentioned that you were in Des Moines and now you're in Vandalia, is that correct? In Illinois? Correct. Okay, so, so is that kind of, you know, you're from, from that area, or, you know, move, move back, uh, into Illinois? Why, why that move? And then why decided to put the distillery where you're at today?

Rick

Radliff: Sure. Well, the— we moved back to Southern Illinois, which is about 60 miles south of where I was born and raised, because this is where Mom and Dad were from. And as I mentioned before, for towards the beginning, uh, Dad had friends and family that farmed, friends predominantly. And so this put us right in close proximity to them, and actually we sourced most of our grain, at least certainly our corn and wheat, locally from right here. Uh, so we always liked Southern Illinois, a little more rural, uh, not the deep dark, quite as fertile soil as what one would find around Decatur where I'm from. We got to scratch a little harder here and get a rain more frequently, but we like We like the environment, plus it sits right on I-70. So you think about tourist traveling, right? It's a good location there.

And we're directly across from the old State House here in Vandalia, which a lot of history in town. It was the first place that Abraham Lincoln served in a legislative office for as a state legislator and where he received his bar license to practice law. Practice law. So it's a neat place to be, and people roll into town because of that. So we serve not only tourists, but also the local community. And I'd say it's probably right now 80% local, 20% tourists, but we believe over time we'll build that. But that's what drew us here.

Shay

Foulk: Mm-hmm. Oh, that's great. And then, you know, you mentioned that you and your wife have been working on this project together and taking this next step. So I guess, who all is involved in the business today, and how has that kind of developed over the last couple of years?

Rick

Radliff: Yeah, so it's me, my wife, and our son Shane, our oldest son. He's 29, and we are really the 3 full-time employees. And then we also have another full-time employee that works here, and she does— she operates our bar, she helps us with marketing and direct sales to bars, restaurants, and packaged liquor in the area. And then we also have a couple of part-time folks that have started. And so we run lean right now because we can. And as we build a business and it's growing, we're beyond where we want to be for less than a year. We feel good about where we're at, but we're not where we want to be in 3 years. Okay. But we're pretty small and nimble team right now, and we all wear a lot of hats. I do production, marketing, formulation. So, you know, we make vodka, peach vodka, lemon vodka, spice rum. We make a Fayette County Fire.

We're in Fayette County and it's called a red hot cinnamon whiskey. So all those things, I know that's fun. You know, you get to use your creativity as well and to make those things. And then we have a team of friends and family that we, we test with. And that's kind of, that's our team right now. But we look forward to hiring a few more people. Here over the course of the next 12 to 18 months.

Shay

Foulk: So a lot of people listening, you know, from farm backgrounds, family farm backgrounds, you talk about working with family, and it's no different between any business that we work with on the consulting side, whether it's an ag business, uh, outside of the agriculture industry, or within family farms. There's benefits and there's, there's challenges to working with family. So how has that kind of transition been I'll ask you that transparently, and you can say as much or as little as you'd like. And, uh, I guess what would you kind of speak to about that on some similarities that you saw from over the years working with family farm operations and other seed businesses?

Rick

Radliff: Sure. Um, so, you know, after spending a good amount of time over the last 3 decades or so calling on a lot of farmers and seeing different farming operations You see everything. And I think it's, you see everything with small business too. I mean, in big business that you see some older folks on the farm who have enabled and given their team, their kids and nephews and nieces and all the opportunity to gain responsibility and own pieces and parts of the business. And started relatively early, allowed them to make mistakes, correct those and learn from them because that's how we learn, right? It's, we all know that. But, and then you see situations where that's not the case, where they kept the reins and not allowed that to happen.

But now you can only do that to the degree that the person's willing, your child, whether they be 16 or, you know, 46, for that matter, to the degree that they want to take on the responsibility and really want to thrive in that kind of role. And so, you know, I saw that, and what we do here is really no different. I've, you know, my 28-year-old son, actually just turned 29, he loves the production. He likes to do web stuff on the web or Facebook and that kind of, those things. So that's what he does. He is not a people person. He doesn't like to be out front. So there's a couple of us that do that and to push him out there, that's just not what he, that's not his passion. So we don't, and we know that. Now I've got a younger son that now works away and pretty successful. He's 24.

And I hope that someday he will come back, come here and he would thrive taking over the business and being, you know, the person. Who's out front. He's a salesman and sharp in that regard, well articulate, well spoken, and that's his passion. But right now, that's, that's not what he wants to do, and that's okay because he needs to do his thing and gain the experience. And perhaps someday he'll, he'll come back. And that's really one of the reasons that when we, we named this, we decided not to put a family name on it because someday, you know, we may sell it and nobody's going to want Radliff on a distillery that they own. And then, and then if you, if you knew what's behind the curtain in terms of all the dynamics to redo an S corp, LLCs, the federal permit, state permit, and all that, it's just kind of nightmarish.

So we decided to give it a brand as opposed to the family name that someone else, if we ever were to sell it, then they could carry on with that too. So all that played, you know, a piece in succession planning. And that was a little piece of what we thought of when we thought of that.

Shay

Foulk: That's a phenomenal perspective, especially to the listeners that hear Chris and I talk a lot about succession planning, estate planning, and just overall good business structure. So, I'm really happy to hear that you guys kind of set that up for success down the road. And you mentioned branding it as Witness Distillery. I haven't asked you yet. Some of the logo, I would call it, is kind of the all-seeing eye. So how did you decide on Witness Distillery? Where does that come from?

Rick

Radliff: Sure. So knowing that we were going to source locally, we source our water locally. We do not use city water. We use spring water, unchlorinated, unfluorinated water. We source most of our grains locally. And so the theme is witness the water, witness the grains, witness the spirits. Can I get a witness? Yes, you can. Vodka, rum, or whiskey. So that, that was the thought process. Yeah. Uh, checked it out, trademarked it actually. I don't know if it's that good, but if it were, then somebody thinks it is, at least it's trademarked. Yep. Um, and that's it. So that's the thing now. So my cousin, or my cousin, my nephew, who's a graphic artist, I said, you know, you're creative, uh, come up with a couple of logos that you think might be, you know, it would link back with Witness. And so he came up with one that was rather rural, country, you know, barn board and that.

And then the other one that he put in front of us was the eye. I'm like, man, that's— I like that. Um, how to cut up— it's kind of trendy, per se, you know. And, and, uh, so it would appeal to everyone, including, uh, folks who are like tourists, for example, and folks who aren't in, you know, in the country, let's say. Um, it's a little, uh, a little more trendier look to it, but also a throwback, um, to, uh, Prohibition and that. So, um, that's, that's what we settled on. Everybody we put in front of, like, man, they immediately— the immediate response was, that's, that's neat, and we can do a lot with that too.

Shay

Foulk: Yeah, very cool. Uh, so when you look at the next step in your business, or kind of where you see the future of it going, what do you, what do you envision for the next kind of year or so, 2 years, 3 years out? How do you think about that moving forward?

Rick

Radliff: Yeah, so the state of Illinois allows us to produce up to 100,000 gallons of distilled spirits a year with our permit. We can't begin to produce that much. We're about 5,000. But just so happens that then also our permit allows us to sell up to 5,000 gallons directly to consumers, i.e., people that come in here and also bars, restaurants, and packaged liquor. And so that kind of fit the 5,000-gallon limit isn't a hindrance right now. It may be down the road, but— well, I think it will be. But we look at selling about a third of that 5,000 gallons to people that come in the door. We do tours, tastings of that. But then we have an opportunity for another two-thirds, you know, that we can sell outside. And so that's where we've got one person doing outside sales right now very successfully.

And so I think within 2, 2.5 years, we'll hit our 5,000-gallon limit that we can actually sell ourselves. What happens after that 5,000 gallons, any gallon after that, we have to go through a distributor. Okay. And then all of a sudden, you have to share margin with a distributor, you have to share it with a retailer before it ever gets to the consumer. And so the threshold we're going to cross here sometime in a couple of years, I think, is that Do we want to invest more to make less? That doesn't make a lot of sense, right? I mean, unless the next step would be we would want to really pump it up and sell tens of thousands of gallons. And candidly, that doesn't sound like my retirement aspiration. I think 5,000 sounds really about right. But I don't know. We'll see what happens when we get there.

We are unique in, to my knowledge, in the state of Illinois, that we do have a barrel program. We sell 5-gallon barrels, 10-gallon barrels, and People can get their logo laser engraved on the end of the barrel. We fill it with whatever mash bill of whiskey that they want. We age it for them. They come in, we create a custom label, we label it, they take it home with them, the aged spirit, usually whiskey or rye, and they take it home with them and with their custom labels and all that. I only know of one other in the Illinois and Iowa area that is doing that, and that's the there's a, a distillery in Des Moines that does that, but I don't know of any in Illinois. There may be, but I'm not aware of them. So that's a little unique.

Shay

Foulk: So is that—

Rick

Radliff: it's been a lot of fun.

Shay

Foulk: Is that part of your private barrel club then? Is that what you call that, or—

Rick

Radliff: that's correct.

Shay

Foulk: Okay, great. And, and what I would encourage too, and you can correct me on anything if I'm wrong here, but for those that are listening to this and interested, uh, just go to witnessdistillery.com and, and look at everything that they have going on there. I mean whether it's the logos we're talking about, the different products that they have to offer. You mentioned that you do tours as well within the distillery. What does that tour kind of look like?

Rick

Radliff: Sure. So we bring people in, they go to our cocktail bar in the basement. We call it Whiskey Underground. We revamped that whole basement area. It was a mess and we spent a lot of time doing that. They have a cocktail, come up, and then I spend about 45 minutes with them talking about products we make, the product, the, the grain we use, the water. Some of it I've already shared with, with your, your listeners a little bit. Talk about our equipment, how we use it, this mashing process, fermentation, distillation process. Then everybody gets to taste our, our products that we have, all of them, if that's what they want to do. And you find some people like dark spirits. They like— they come here to taste the whiskey and the rye, the bourbon rye and other whiskeys. But some folks just want to taste sweet stuff.

You know, our peach and lemon vodka, spiced rum, and that type of thing. So we try to appeal and have products that when somebody comes in, they find something they like. Some people like everything. Some people— on occasion, you find somebody who likes nothing, and that's disappointing, but that doesn't happen too often. Not too often.

Shay

Foulk: So anything that, that I'm not asking you about that you think the listeners should know about Witness Distillery, kind of what you guys are all about, and, you know, how they can come visit you or anything like that? Anything I haven't asked you?

Rick

Radliff: Um, just one, one thing I'll share is that I, first of all, yeah, we love, we love having people come from whatever distance. We get probably 80% of our folks from about 40 miles away right now in the circle, but as others become more aware, that's going to grow. Uh, we've seen that already. But one of the things that, with my background in ag, one of the things I did was I contacted recently the local Fayette County Farm Bureau, and they have a foundation for scholar— they support scholarships for local, you know, graduating seniors. Yep. And kids from, uh, for college from Fayette County.

And so I'm actually having a meeting with them, with their board tomorrow evening, and I put a proposal in front of them to help, um, with, with locally sourced grain, i.e., from farmers who are Farm Bureau members here in the community if they want to contribute some corn or wheat and/or wheat that we can make 5-gallon barrels, do that private barrel program for them with grain utilized from their own farm, and then age it here, bottle it, take it home with them. And then we're, we're probably going to provide somewhat of a discount on the barrel, and then we're going to make joint, a joint contribution to the Fayette County Farm Bureau Scholarship Foundation.

And so it's a great fundraising opportunity for the foundation, for Fayette County Farm Bureau, and a means to kind of rally the folks around here in a community, you know, oriented towards a community effort and have some fun and make some good whiskey and grow that foundation for them and the kids locally. So that's been fun. One of the things we wanted to do when we came here would have a positive impact on, on the community. Had a great career, but now it's, uh, it's time to also give some back. And, and that's one of the ways that we're doing it, is along with— just recently we had a first responders dinner. We did a fundraiser for them, and then, uh, because of COVID and we brought in, uh, all the first responders from the county and did a feed for them and some entertainment free of charge, uh, based on the fundraiser that we did.

Witness Distillery did for the fundraisers and the first responders in the county. So that was a lot of fun. So being part of the community and giving back, much like many of the folks I've worked with over the last 32 years, this is our opportunity to do even more of that now that we're based here and retired here.

Shay

Foulk: It sounds, it sounds like you're really enjoying kind of this next step and this next chapter in your life. You know, I mean, of course people think, well, there's probably a lot of challenges and a lot of, you know, maybe stresses that go along with it, but you seem to really be enjoying it.

Rick

Radliff: Yeah, we are. Probably the biggest stress comes on the part of all the regulatory hurdles that we have to jump through constantly. But that's unfortunately part of being in business today. But you have the federal government, you have state government, local government, all the different things. Things, fire marshal regulations with our boilers. I mean, just it's constant, but we're much better prepared for that now than we were when we first started. Had we known what— if we knew what we didn't know, we probably never would've started. Thank God we were ignorant at the time. And it was a blessing that we were blissfully ignorant. Yeah. Because here we are now.

Shay

Foulk: Well, congratulations on the success that you've realized so far. I think it's phenomenal what you're doing there. The contributions back into the community is really cool to see. As a Farm Bureau member, I'm up here in Marshall Putnam County in Illinois, and I think the work that the Farm Bureau does in contributing back into the agricultural community and those who are going to be the future is pretty phenomenal as well. So just thank you for your commitment to that. Rick, I, you know, I've really enjoyed this conversation. Again, if people are interested, they can go to witnessdistillery.com. They can come and visit you guys. Looks like you have some great tours laid out there. Any final thoughts here?

Rick

Radliff: I just want to thank you for the opportunity to speak with your audience. It's been fun. We're having fun, and I think when people come, they, they see that and they sense it, and they, they have a good time. We We try to provide a great experience along with great products and anchored right here, you know, in an agriculturally oriented community. And that's where we want to be. And so thank you for your time.

Shay

Foulk: Appreciate it. Absolutely. Thanks again, Rick. And thank you everyone for listening to another episode of the Ag View Pitch, and we will catch you next time.