The Small Business Safari
Have you ever sat there and wondered "What am I doing here stuck in the concrete zoo of the corporate world?" Are you itching to get out? Chris Lalomia and his co-host Alan Wyatt traverse the jungle of entrepreneurship. Together they share their stories and help you explore the wild world of SCALING your business. With many years of owning their own small businesses, they love to give insight to the aspiring entrepreneur. So, are you ready to make the jump?
The Small Business Safari
When Bourbon Talks Back | Dan Gorman
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What do diamonds, apartment buildings, and a bottle of bourbon that literally talks back have in common? Dan Gorman.
Dan joins the Safari to share his unconventional entrepreneurial journey—from getting fired while carrying debt, to building a diamond brokerage, moving into commercial real estate, and eventually helping create General Thomas Bourbon. Along the way, he proves that some of the biggest opportunities in business come from preparation, purposeful risk, and simply getting in the room with the right people.
We dig into how thoughts become actions, actions become habits, and habits ultimately shape your results. Dan shares how preparation and consistency can make “manifesting” look a lot more like hard work, why face-to-face networking still beats digital connections, and how one relationship helped him land a 168-unit apartment deal with no money down.
Then we pour a glass and explore General Thomas Bourbon—a brand combining tradition with AI technology. Through a unique QR code, a personalized message can be permanently tied to an individual bottle, turning bourbon into an experience and a memorable gift.
💡 GOLD NUGGETS
• How negative thoughts can ultimately influence your actions, habits, character, and destiny
• Why preparation and consistency create opportunities that can look like luck
• Going from being fired and in debt to building a diamond brokerage
• Using commercial real estate to create recurring income
• How one relationship led to a 168-unit apartment deal with no money down
• Why taking purposeful risks can open unexpected doors
• The lasting power of face-to-face relationships in a digital world
• How General Thomas Bourbon is using AI to make each bottle personal and memorable
• Building a brand that stands out without relying on gimmicks
🎥 Watch the full episode on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/@TheSmallBusinessSafari
A bourbon bottle shows up on our table, we scan a QR code, and suddenly “General Thomas” starts talking. That’s when we realize we’re not just tasting a great pour, we’re looking at a masterclass in modern small business marketing: build something worth buying, then wrap it in an experience people cannot help but share.
We sit down with Dan Gorman, an entrepreneur who went from a diamond broker to commercial real estate investor, and he doesn’t sugarcoat the hard parts. He talks about getting fired with a one-year-old, $25,000 in credit card debt, and real pressure at home, then choosing to bet on himself anyway. From there, we dig into the deal that changed everything: a 168-unit apartment community bought with creative financing and a relationship-driven “yes” from an investment banker. It becomes Dan’s “$7 million lunch,” a reminder that face-to-face networking, credibility, and follow-through still beat a thousand DMs.
We also get practical about mindset for entrepreneurs and small business owners. We talk negative thought loops, how thoughts turn into actions and habits, and why leaders have to rewrite the script if they want their teams and their businesses to grow. Then we return to the bourbon and the tech: Dan explains how General Thomas Kentucky Bourbon uses AI and unique QR codes so every bottle has its own web experience and can permanently “lock” a custom message to that specific bottle, turning it into a personalized gift with real emotional punch.
If you like business stories with real lessons, real laughs, and a little bourbon culture, hit play. Subscribe, share this with a founder friend, and leave us a review with the best advice you ever got over coffee or lunch.
🔗 Guest Link
• General Thomas Bourbon: https://generalthomasbourbon.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dangorman/
🌍 Follow The Small Business Safari
• Instagram | @smallbusinesssafaripodcast
• LinkedIn |https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrislalomia/
• Website | https://chrislalomia.com
Thanks to our sponsor Smart Hire Solutions LLC!
A Talking Bourbon Bottle
SPEAKER_02All right, so we're gonna taste the bourbon, but there's a little extra, and he was talking about this real quick. He said, I've listened to AI, and he says, Hey, scan this thing. So, guys, I'm gonna scan the QR code of the General Thomas Bourbon. Here we go. So much for my history lesson. You can look it up on Wikipedia. Yeah, look it up. Alan Boring. Bourbon, interesting. Be interesting, Alan. Here we go, guys. Check this out. You want to hear from General Thomas?
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Put it close to the microphone.
SPEAKER_03Gentlemen.
SPEAKER_041865. I've commanded armies and addressed presidents. Never a podcast until now. Every purchaser records a custom message over their own bottle. My orders are simple. Drink well. Don't retreat.
SPEAKER_01Let's go, Dan Corbin. Interesting people. Wow. So let's dude. That is awesome.
SPEAKER_06I love your reaction there. That's I get it. So the the tech. I'll explain. So did you take a sip yet? No, yeah. Here we go.
SPEAKER_00All right. Let's test it.
SPEAKER_02Don't spit this out. You better love it. I don't care if you oh, it's a healthy pour too. I like it. Oh, I went deep, big boy. Because I've been holding off for a little bit. This is uh castrine.
SPEAKER_06So I think your bottom is probably 112 proof or something. So um um, but it's got a great nose. Smell it. Oh, you're gonna be like, oh, that smells good.
SPEAKER_02And so smells good, tastes good, finishes really well.
Small Business Safari Kickoff
SPEAKER_02Welcome to the Small Business Safari, where I help guide you to avoid those traps, pitfalls, and dangers that lurk when navigating the wild world of small business ownership. I'll share those gold nuggets of information and invite guests to help accelerate your ascent to that mountaintop of success. It's a jungle out there, and I want to help you traverse through the levels of owning your own business that can get you bogged down and distract you from hitting your own personal and professional goals. So strap in Adventure Team and let's take a ride through this safari. We're rocking, we're rolling, we're making it happen. We do it every single week, guys. May and I'll tell you what, another great week in the books, or is it another shitty week in the book? It's all about your attitude.
SPEAKER_05You've got a twinkle in your eye today, though. I am pumped up, guys.
SPEAKER_02I was too. I actually you called me a tool, and you threatened to give me the first finger ever in five years. We've been doing this for five years, guys. And you give me the finger. What the hell, dude? I know. I mean, come on. You can't do that to me. I mean, you Chris. I'm a man, the myth, the legend in my own mind. All right, guys, great
Negative Thoughts Into Better Habits
SPEAKER_02episode. But let's talk about let's talk about what we got coming up. I can't say it yet, but I'm gonna talk about it. I want to talk about this. One of the things I trained my team on this morning was talking about your thoughts. And we have there's no science out there, so guess what? Uh 72% of all facts are made up, and 72.7% of all stats are made up.
SPEAKER_05So how do I do how do I even know that's accurate?
SPEAKER_02Right. So we have 6,000 thoughts a day as adults. Um, actually, there's no study on this, but let me tell the story. I'll just go with it. Of those 6,000 thoughts, how many do you think are negative, Alan?
SPEAKER_05Probably a lot. I was thinking you were gonna say most of them are about sex, but uh are you just saying positive or negative?
SPEAKER_02This isn't just about Chris, this is all adults. If it's Chris, that's 99.7%. No, how many thoughts are negative? I don't know. Go ahead. Half. 80. 80%. How many thoughts do we repeat in our head throughout the day? Here's the bad news. What do you mean? How if you have a thought, how many times do you think about it again and again and again? 90%. So 80% of our thoughts are negative, but 90% of the time we repeat them. That's called negative thought behavior. So what I was telling my team this morning was listen, guys, if there's a guy here who can think negative, negative, negative, this guy who started a business 18 years ago and here we are 18 years later, I am still always looking out for the negatives. Change your thoughts, change your personal thoughts into positive thoughts because thoughts become actions. What does that mean? You know what? This morning I'm gonna wake up. Today, I'm gonna make this day a great day. I can't wait to meet the next client. I can't wait to make that next call. I can't wait to make that next sale. I can't wait to finish this next job because I'm in the home services role. Now those actions that you take on because you had those thoughts become habits. Those habits become your character. They become to set up who you are and what you do. When people say, Hey, is Alan a good hang? Hey, Chris, when you do a podcast, do you make any money at it? Well, that's a negative thought. How about this? Hey, Chris, when you do a podcast, are you having fun with it? Hell yeah. I do this every week with Alan, and I've been doing it for five years, and I look forward to it. Do I like golfing? Uh, not right now. But I used to like Well, you do. Golfing just isn't like you or me. Right. So those character thoughts become our destiny and where we're gonna go. And that's what I'm gonna leave you guys with. A little wisdom from Chris. I passed on to the
Julio Jones And Manifesting Destiny
SPEAKER_02team this morning. We use Julio Jones, one of my favorite wide receivers from the Atlanta Falcons, who I got a chance to meet. And I will tell you, uh, this dude is the real deal when you go look at his preparation, his technique, and what I talked about was everybody said as a kid that you want to do X. You want to do so? A lot of us uh I did I never I knew I was never gonna be a pro football player because I was um I'm I'm 6'2. When I met Julio, he's 6'5, 6'6, he's as tall as you. Um, unfortunately, he's the exact inverse of our physique. His his but his shoulders were like I swear to God, they were five feet wide. Oh my god, he chiseled, not an ounce of fat. But he he said as a kid he wanted to be a pro football player. And how many kids have said that? A lot of kids have said that. But what did he do to manifest his destiny? His thoughts became his actions, his actions became his habits, his habits became his character, his character became his destiny, and that's what he worked his way up to because those habits became what he did, and his habits and the way he presented himself and did things to prepare for three hours or four hours on Sunday was that. And now look at what he's manifested. He's manifested generational wealth for his family, he's giving back to communities who are less than him, he's giving back into the world. I mean, just a really good human being, and he did it. That's what I try to explain to our kid, uh to my team this morning in training is that we can change our way we think about ourselves, and we can do that. And that's the hard part because you know me, man. Uh, my meetings do not start with positive, they start with what the hell did you do now? And damn it, dolls come out pretty quick. But you know what? Today, we've got a guy who, when you read this guy's bio, you're like, this dude obviously was thinking something, took action on something, created a habit, and I'll be damned, man. He manifested some destiny, bro. Because he did some stuff that this cat hadn't even seen. It's pretty cool. It
Dan Gorman’s Risk Driven Start
SPEAKER_02is today. We got Dan the Man Gorman. Dan, welcome to the show, buddy.
SPEAKER_06Thank you. It's awesome to be here. I love the intro. That was amazing. I'm fired up right now.
SPEAKER_02Let's go, big guy. Let's get into it. So, Dan, talk to us a little bit about kind of the early career journey and where you came from and what you did.
SPEAKER_06Well, I'm gonna tie uh what I say into a little bit what you just said because I feel like uh, okay, so I grew up in the Air Force Pratt. My dad was in the Air Force. We moved every the longest I ever lived anywhere uh until the time I was 13 was 18 months. And so we moved and we moved. Uh when you're in the Air Force, everybody's got the same house, everybody makes the same amount of money, you know, the same rank and all that stuff. Uh when I was in high school, I started working for a guy who owned a jewelry store. And this is like so different from what I had ever been exposed to. Um the guy was 25 years old. He drove a vintage Ferrari, it's like James Bond type thing. And he would just wake up in the morning and he would just have an idea and then do it, you know? And it was just like we would, he would, and I worked for him for 10 years ultimately through college and a little bit after college. And it's just whenever I was just like so attracted. Not only, you know, he made good money, but it was just like the the there was just never any thought about risk or failing or whatever, because he just always went for it. And a lot of times the stuff didn't work. Uh, but it just was like after working for him, I don't think I was ever employable again, just because I uh I just wanted to to have that feeling of being able to take, you know, like manifest something, uh, an idea. And uh, and luckily I started, I I got he fired me eventually when I had a one-year-old and $25,000 in credit card debt and uh and a rocky marriage. And so, and I got fired. And so um I had I was either gonna have to find a job or or to use the knowledge that I had made working for him. And so I started my own diamond business uh and uh I was became a diamond broker and uh with without any money and uh it built it into a half a million dollar business, you know, by myself, uh just working. And uh, and so that was that was really fun. You know, uh my wife used to say, hey, somebody had to marry the diamond broker. And so it was kind of a fun business to say you're in. Um it became more and more competitive when the internet started firing up. And so a lot of my wholesalers, they would set up like ghost sites and act like they were a new company, but really it was just them selling directly to the consumer. Um, it just became really challenging to make money. So I was trying to find a way that I could uh uh have some type of passive income, build wealth uh that wasn't like every time you made a sale, you're not gonna
Diamonds, Debt, And Getting Fired
SPEAKER_06make another any more money unless you make another sale. You know, I wanted something that had some lasting power. So I started getting into commercial real estate and uh didn't have any money, tried to figure out ways to buy. I uh ultimately bought a 44 unit uh altogether. I had 44 units without any money down, trying to run the diamond thing, trying to run the uh some apartments at the same time. And I um and I had um uh uh something that changed my life as I went to uh I started having lunch with everybody, just trying to figure out what I want to do, how I was gonna make something work. And I and I took this guy out to lunch, he was an investment banker, and I said, Man, I am not making any money because I've got I'm doing I'm just running all around, I'm running these businesses. It's not really that productive because I'm not being excellent at any of them. Uh uh I really want an apartment community that has a manager, has a staff, but I don't have any money. And um, and he's like, Well, that's gonna take that normally take about a half a million to a million in cash to buy something like that because you're talking three or four million dollars minimum. And so, but uh, I'm not gonna, he didn't laugh at me. He just basically said, I'll give you some tips on what to look for. And I searched for about six months and I found a really unique opportunity where the guy was in jail uh that owned it was 168 units, and I brought it to him. And he was like, he's like, dang, like this is if you can really get this for the price you think you can, um, I'll finance it for you 100%. And so we ended up getting a uh a three million dollar apartment community with 168 units in it. Uh, no money down. It actually came with $100,000 in the bank. Um, and so, and that changed my life. That was I became an instant millionaire because we have been appraised for almost $2 million more than what we bought it for, uh, like a year and a half later, pulled out uh over a million bucks and started buying more, increased that portfolio up to 700 apartments, mobile home pads, and then started buying some distressed uh office buildings and things like that. And so that was uh uh so what that did was um it when you start to when you and I and I know that you said you did a little bit of commercial real estate too, or a lot of it. Um, and uh what if you can get the real estate machine going, it produces a lot of uh uh passive income um or recurring income, I should say. It's not necessarily passive, you have to work, but um, but that that opened up a lot of freedom for me because I was uh, you know, I made more money as soon as I bought the uh that five uh 168 unit apartment community, I made more money in the next month than I'd ever made in my life and and had a staff running it. And so um, so I built an organization with the staff and then that would run the company for me. And now my son's taking over, which is is uh is pretty awesome. He's uh just graduated. Wow, that's rewarding.
SPEAKER_02Oh yeah, man.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, talk about leaving a legacy. In fact, I had two daughters and uh and and we're on the way to deliver our third, and I was expecting another girl. And as soon as, as soon as he popped out and I held him in my arms for the first time, I said, I guess I got myself a business partner. So um, and and it and it and and talk about manifesting, he's my business partner now, you know, 23 years later. So um uh it's just it's amazing to work with your son. So um so so what it did, so with that freedom, I was it was, you know, it was a very it made life really flexible for me. I could do like a lot of things with with my kids' school and and community. Um I opened up a I took a mission trip to Africa and I saw how inefficient the building processes were there. So we started a company in in Rwanda that builds low-cost homes. Um that
Real Estate Wealth With Creative Financing
SPEAKER_06is a that is tough, tough to do business there. So we're still trying to crack that code. We haven't built very many. Uh we're about ready to build 10 more, but it's it's tough. But you know, it's just the uh the freedom and the um, you know, to to be able to take those types of risks that's amazing, you know. So that's what real estate's afforded me.
SPEAKER_05Um I still gotta ask the the Rwanda thing, is that more of a missional thing rather than uh an opportunity to make some more money?
SPEAKER_06Well, it's kind of both. I don't I so we sell a three-bedroom house that's about 850 square feet, solid concrete, and we sell it for 25 to probably $27,000, you know, depending on how much the land costs. Um, when we sell it for $27,000, we make about $5,000. So we're not gonna get rich on selling 10 houses, um, but we will if um but it is solving a pretty big issue there. So I don't want to be like a nine nonprofit, but if we if it turned into a there's a limitless need for somebody to solve that problem. And so if you could develop a system that worked well, um you could sell hundreds or thousands of them, um, and and there that you wouldn't the need would never drop, you know. So it's just such a such a big need all over the world. So uh so we have some specific building techniques we use for that with forms and cider foam concrete and things like that to try to speed up the building process. Um so yeah, we've got a uh I tried to market a uh I came up with a product like a jewelry product um that we we tried to market to uh uh like for blended families and things like that. And it's called a Unity pendant. That never really took off. Um did some other little things that never took off. Writing a book called the $7 million lunch, which is the I told you about that lunch that I have. So that property I bought for $3 million, uh, no money down. I sold it um seven years later for $10.5 million. And so I call that my seven million dollar lunch. And so the the the um the premise of that book is really it's kind of the manifesting thing like you were talking about in the beginning, but really the importance of of reaching out and meeting with people face to face, whether that's over a cup of coffee, a lunch, a be a happy hour. And and I think the book is really more geared towards young people because there's such a reliance now on digital communication that, you know, like uh if I if I tell the story of my daughter, she was moving into college with this girl, um, and they had been communicating all summer through Instagram and uh uh texting and things like that. And so right before, like the night before we were moving around, she had this huge question. She had to have answers, like, does she need this pillow or something like that? I can't remember what the exact thing was, but she's like, I keep texting her and she's not answering. I'm like, and I said, Well, you have her phone number. Why don't you just call her? And she says, I'm not calling her, I've never met her before. I'm like, you are living with her in 12 hours.
SPEAKER_02Don't understand, Dad. Don't understand. That's not how we communicate, Dad. Okay, thank you, girl. All right, continue. Yes.
SPEAKER_06So but the but the but the real the the purpose of the book is to make people understand or to help people understand, especially young kids, uh, younger people, that that that really where where business gets done is face to face. You know, this is where success happens. This is where, and it happens so um it happens so infrequently now, even now compared to what what it used to, is I think that if you do do it, you stand out even more. And so I love it. My son is just, he has, I'll just meet pot people on the uh like I had lunch with a reporter yesterday and and I was talking to him and he said, What's your son's name? And I said, Charlie. He says, Oh yeah, I had lunch, I I had coffee with him like a month ago. I'm like, what? And so like he's he really he's kind of taken it to heart and he's really networking. And and so I just I just think that's so important for for uh to to achieving your goals or to attaining success or whatever, or just having a full life, you know, is to uh is to be meeting with people on a regular basis. And there's actually something scientifically that happens during a meal, as opposed to if I were to call you and meet with you in your office, um, that's way different. You know what I mean? I'm I'm still there's still going to be a uh communication and community happening, but there's something that's kind of like happens in your brain when you're sharing a meal together that doesn't happen in an office, you know. So so that's that's kind of what I and so so I've I finished the first half of the book, which is all the science behind it and the reasons and the stories and stuff. And now I'm collecting um, I'm interviewing people that that's uh that type of thing has happened to. Does that make sense?
SPEAKER_02So it definitely happens to us. We talk about this networking and human connection. We talk about this a lot. And B I uh uh you know, the global networking uh group that if you don't know what it is, it's a weekly contact group, and they're they're worldwide. Ivan's the one who uh Ivan Meisner's the one who uh gave me a little forward on my uh book. Thank you. But uh you talk about it's no like and trust. And it's really hard to build trust digitally over the phone, uh, through Instagram, through text messages. Trust is really built one-to-one, human-to-human. It's still undefeated. I you know I'm watching these kids cycle through. And uh we Al and I have given back and talked to young people in the past, and we talk about that and said, You want to be successful, right? Number one, those success habits we just talked about. Number two, meet people. Just meet people and talk to old people. Uh, because Alan's old. I mean, he's really old. Uh, and so you know, and I'm not as old, I'm just kind of old. You're pretty freaking close. I'm close though. But us old people love talking to young people who are interested. So the question I've got for you is you had your seven million dollar lunch. Why do you think he talked to you? I mean, and and don't be humble. Tell us why do you think he talked to you? What did you say to him to get him to be excited enough to go, hey man, I'll give you 100%. Because that's a big nut, dude.
SPEAKER_06Well, the the difference, like when you especially like when you meet with young people, and I was kind of young at the time, I was in my I was about 30. Yeah, you're young, you're a baby. And so when the difference is like if somebody says, uh, I want to meet with you, Dan, and learn about real estate, if all they do is they show up, show up to a lunch and they say, Hey, tell me how I can get into real estate. It sounds really cool. You know what I mean? And so they've done like no research, they've done no effort themselves. All they want is a brain dump from you, how to uh kind of like a how-to guide. That's a lot different than if somebody is in the game already. You know what I mean? Like they have read books, they have done a teeny bit of research on you, they know what you've accomplished, but really maybe even they've done a deal or two. So they can talk intelligently. And so I have so much more respect for somebody who's already in the game, who's who's it doesn't mean that you shouldn't meet with people when you just because you have an idea, but the more you are, the more credibility you build before you meet with that person, then and even if the credibility simply means that you when you have things that you want to do, you do them, you know? And so uh there's a heck of a lot of people, the majority of the people they have all these ideas. I wish I could do that, I wish I could do that. Um, but they never do anything, you know? Um, and so so if you if you catch one of those folks and they're sitting in front of you, you just naturally want to help them, I think, you know? And um just like when you're when you I don't know, I'm sure you know what I'm talking about, but it's it's such a difference when you meet somebody who's Do you know what he's talking about?
SPEAKER_02Yeah. What do you talk? What's he talking about, Alan? Go ahead. Yeah, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_05No, I no, I'm enjoying this, and I'm I'm very curious, you know, if you uh like taught your son, you know, have a cup of coffee with somebody three times a week, or or uh and you you talked about you know the opportunities that can come from it, but it also enriches your life. And and in networking, I I coined a phrase here we call it leg humpers because there are people that you know they want to meet with you and you can't shake them off your leg because all they want to do is just get something. And I kind of get the impression that when you're meeting with people, you just want to get to know them and and you're open to whatever comes out of it, but you're you're building your community. I mean, do you
Rwanda Homes And Purposeful Risk
SPEAKER_05have a strategy when you're when you're networking like that? Or you know, what what have you talked about? Your son.
SPEAKER_06Um, well, I think there's a lot of different reasons to meet people, you know, necessarily, but I think that um if you are a person that is genuinely interested in whatever is the thing that you're doing, meeting the person with, it could be, you know, um, you know, we uh have a lot of faith-related meetings, you know, and so uh Bible study type things, you mentoring young guy things and stuff like that. And so we share a common interest there. Um so so really but I I'm not really sure how to answer the question, other than there's all kinds of reasons to meet for per with person, not just not just um um business, but I think that one of the main components is vulnerability. So if if I'm meeting with a person who basically says, you know, like I said to the guy, like I I want to be able to buy this thing, this apartment community. I have no uh money, but I really want it, I really want you to try to help me figure out how to do it. And I will do the things and I will report back to you, you know what I mean? And so that's one of the other things that I love when you meet with somebody is if they actually text you or call you back and say, I did that thing we talked about, you know. Um, and this is how it went. You're like, dang it, let's meet again. I want to hear more about it, you know.
SPEAKER_02So I think I think you hit on it. I that's the thing. Yeah, what I tell people, and I've told uh younger people too be interesting, be interested and be interesting. Yeah, don't just sit there. They're not gonna give you anything, but they're gonna give you a lot of time if you're interesting and you're interested in what they're doing. So understand who they are.
SPEAKER_05You become interesting by being interested because most people would just want to talk about themselves. They do. So if you ask somebody, hey, I you know, if you're a young person, I I just would love to meet with you. I want to pick your brain. People like having their brain picked, I think.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I I would still say, hey, you know, when when the ones I've opened the doors to, and Alan, you've talked about this after five years. The podcast, anybody wants to come see what we do here at the Trusted Toolbox. Now I built this home service company up to 35 employees. I open the door. But I just don't open the door. I open the door if you're interesting and you're interested in what I'm talking about. So I love that. So, Dan, we talked about that's a great gold nugget. Uh, but I can't let this podcast get away from us. Dan did something to us that after five years, we've had it happen before. We've had a couple of people do some really cool things. Marika Ponton has given us our small business safari glasses for drinking bourbon. Because she came here, saw what we did. Small business safari podcast, we've gotten bourbon glasses. We have gotten marketing, we have gotten books given to us. But today, I have a special gift. If you're listening on the podcast, you're on Apple, you're on Spotify, you're doing whatever. We're also gonna have this on YouTube. We have a special reveal because Dan did something, we're not really sure yet. Now, clearly, I haven't done this. All right, because Cindy told me, Chris, you can't guess what it is, right? Who's that kid at Christmas who shakes shit? I was never that guy because I love being genuinely surprised.
SPEAKER_05I find that really hard to believe.
SPEAKER_02No, Alan, I was always that guy. You unwrapped it. My mother was a huge Christmas freak, man. I'm telling you, in my family,
The $7 Million Lunch And Real Networking
SPEAKER_02Christmas was gospel. My mom used to count it down from the 4th of July. That's how important it was for her. And so I would never do the shake. I would never do the because if I wasn't genuinely surprised, my mother, her joy would be gone. I look at that now, and I can't wait for my grandkids to be able to, you know, because my kids are older now. So here we go. And I don't want grandkids anytime soon. Here we go. So, guys, I have a box, and here comes the unveil. If you're listening to the podcast, I'm just gonna open it. I'm gonna take a look, and then we're gonna talk about where Dan's gone. Diamond Man making apartments. Maybe he sent me his book, blah, blah, blah. It's not candles. Oh my god, it's not candles. I have General Thomas Kentucky bourbon. Yeah, baby. Huh? Look at this shit. Dan Gorman, you're the man, bro. You've given us the best gift we've got in a long time. Now, when you come in person, which you're gonna have to down here in Atlanta, you're gonna have to bring another bottle because we've had people bring in bourbon with us and share it with us. We've had guys make old fashions for us. We've done that. But nobody has done their own bourbon and given it to us. It says General Thomas, Kentucky bourbon, out of Chickamonga. Kentucky. Chickamauga.
SPEAKER_06No, no, Chickamauga. He's called the Rock of Chickamauga. That's because that was he's the most success. Our town, Fort Thomas, is named after him. He's the most successful uh Union Civil War general in the in the war. Nobody ever heard hears about him because he was very uh very humble. And uh, but so I always want to do a uh uh a bourbon brand that honors him because I love bourbon and I love our town. Um and then uh so there's there's an there's another comp so what I would encourage you to do as I'm talking here is uh open it up, pour yourself a little cup, a little glass of it, and uh and I'll I'll talk about it for just a second. Okay.
SPEAKER_00Keep talking about it. Just kind of entertain. Keep talking, keep talking.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, so as I am uh phasing myself out of real estate and my son takes over, um I want to do something just that I'm gonna have a lot of fun with for the next period of my life. So I love bourbon. I love what it stands for for me. It's always been community. You're sitting around a campfire with a group of guys. It's not it's not about getting drunk, it's about sharing, sharing of one or two nice glasses and just having great conversation. Um, I love my town, and so our our town's named after this guy. And then what and then the the the final component of it is as I was getting the brand together and starting to get ready for it, I really started getting uh into AI. And so I love uh I'm just uh very interested and consumed about how AI is going to change the world. So I've kind of uh combined all of that stuff together in this uh in the bottle that you're holding right now.
SPEAKER_05So all right, guys. Have you ever been to the Chickamauga battlefield? I have not. It is in Georgia, and I uh it is in Georgia.
SPEAKER_02That's what I thought when I said that. Georgia, Tennessee line, right? So yeah, yeah. I was like, when you were correcting me, I was like, no, I got it right, didn't I? Because I know it's right here.
SPEAKER_06You said Kentucky. Well, I but I think you said he was from Chickamauga, but anyway. Don't bail him out, Dan. Yeah, bail him out. Bail him out.
SPEAKER_02Bail him out, bail him out, Dan.
SPEAKER_05Bail him out, bail out. The the union is about to get rolled, and uh, and if you go to that battlefield as compared to any other Civil War battlefield, never been. It's it's just trees. I mean, it it's really you can't, there's no sight lines, there's no way to line up or anything, and it was just it was just chaos.
SPEAKER_02All right, so we're gonna taste the bourbon, yeah. But there's a little extra, and he was talking about this real quick. He said, I've listened to AI, and he says, Hey, scan this thing. So, guys, I'm gonna scan the QR code of the General Thomas Bourbon. Here we go. So much for my history lesson. You can look it up on Wikipedia. Yeah, look it up. Alan Boring. Bourbon, interesting. Be interesting, Alan. Here we go, guys. Check this out. You want to hear it from General Thomas? Yeah, put it close to the microphone.
SPEAKER_04Gentlemen. I've commanded armies and addressed presidents, never a podcast until now. Every purchaser records a custom message over their own bottle. My orders are simple. Drink well. Don't retreat.
SPEAKER_01Let's go, Dan Corbin. Interesting people. Wow. Dude, that is awesome.
SPEAKER_06I love your reaction there. Uh, that's I get it. So so the the tech. I'll explain. So did you take a sip yet? No, yeah. Here we go.
SPEAKER_00All right, let's test it.
SPEAKER_02Don't spit this out. You better love it. I don't care if you oh, it's a healthy pour too. I like it. Oh, I went beep, big boy. Because I've been holding off for a little bit.
SPEAKER_06This is uh cast strength, so I think your bottom's probably 112 proof or something. So um um, but it's got a great nose. Smell it. Oh, you're gonna be like, oh, that smells good. And so um smells good, tastes good, finishes really well. Well, yeah, okay. So so the the AI thing, I want to make sure I'm just gonna cover this for a single a minute here because the AI is not a cover for crappy bourbon. A lot of times when I go into a store and I see a a bottle of bourbon or another spirit that's in the shape of like a football or something like that, you know. I I always think if that bourbon was good, they wouldn't need to do put it in that type of bottle, you know. It would just, because you don't see Pappy Van Winkle in a football shape bottle. Um but so but but that bourbon has won uh just in the first year. We've only uh had the brain going for a year. We've already run like a gold medal in the San Francisco World Spirits Competition, a gold medal in the New York International Spirits Competition, and we just found out that we won platinum best in class out of 320 entries. It was the number one entry in the single barrel entries and the SIP awards, which is all like judged by consumers and not judges. And so it is good stuff in there. So, but so the tech stack, the the cool thing, I think like I'm so fired up about it because it's just like we applied for a patent on the on the process on the bottle there. Um, every bottle has a different QR code, meaning that every bottle we ever produce has its own website when you scan it. Um, and I actually recorded or in with the bottle, there should be a card. I'm not sure Sandy's got that or if it's in there. No, it's it's like a card uh that are that I wrote a note on.
SPEAKER_02Um so I'm coming back, everybody.
SPEAKER_06Hang on, hang on. Okay. So in that is is a is a regular QR code from a bottle that's never been scanned. So if you want to mess around with what it feels like to make a message for somebody or whatever, you can do that. In fact, you can you can then um share the message, you know, if you want to post it or whatever. And so it allows you to experience it as a consumer would when they first get it off the shelf. But so when you scan that bottle, um General Thomas immediately comes to life on your phone. You don't need to download an app or anything. Um, he will he'll offer to tell you stories or he will offer you to record a message for you if it's a gift for somebody. Um if you click stories, he'll tell you the story of Fort Thomas or about the brand or about the whisk, the bourbon inside. But if you click on, so this is the patent pending part. If you click on leave a story, a text box pops up. You type your message in it up to 30 seconds, and when you click generate, he will reappear on the screen after about 30 seconds. He'll speak your message back to you. And if you accept the message, it locks it into that bottle, and that is the only bottle in the world that has that message because that's that bottle has its own website. Now you've permanently changed the tech stack where the the custom message becomes the first thing that happens every time it gets scanned after that. And so it was, you know, it was it was fun to create something like that, but it has been really, really fulfilling to see some of the reactions and hear some of the stories about people scanning it. Like uh a guy came, I was just meeting with a guy a couple of days ago, and he got a bottle, his his buddy passed. And uh, and all the guys came in town, they got a bottle. Um, he recorded a message in honor of his friend who had just passed, and he set it on the table. One of his buddies uh scanned it, and it told the story of this guy's life, you know. And and there's guys that were crying in the group, you know. And so, and then at the same time, it's really fun to record like dirty jokes and stuff, like all the bottles I have at home have dirty jokes on them. And so I uh so everybody's when they come over, they go, What's the bottle say, Dan? And I hand them the bottle and so he's got a new joke on it. And so um, so it's like uh it's so highly personal. And so I feel like, you know, whereas originally when I went to it, I was the
General Thomas Bourbon Big Reveal
SPEAKER_06goal was to create like a uh to have a really good bourbon that had a had a had a full a cool feature to it, but it's really become more of like this a really incredible gift, personalized, personalizable gift that happens to be a good bourbon. Does that make sense? And so I feel like 100%, man.
SPEAKER_02You're right, because uh gimmicky bourbon, no thank you. Um what's funny is especially when you look back on the history of bourbon, and so that's this new thing. We're talking about General Thomas uh Kentucky Bourbon, which is coming out now one year into it. Back in the late 90s, uh I used the Wall Street Journal to tell me which distilled spirits would make me look more sophisticated in the consulting world, Alan. How'd that go? Um, oh it worked, baby. Oh, it worked. Uh I was sophisticated. I didn't swear near as fucking much as I do now. I was really polished, dude. So, you know, it talked about bourbon is US uh wannabe scotch, and so that's low. Nobody wants a bourbon in the late 90s, right? Nobody because it's harsh, it's hard, it's not good, it was made by Americans. You need to have scotch because that's what sophisticates drink. You want a martini shaken, not stirred, because that's what Bond had. You know what I'm saying? All right, here we go. So tequila, always buy the high-end stuff. Don't ever buy, I hate to say this, man, not gonna diss on Quirvo, but no Quirvo.
SPEAKER_05There goes our sponsorship.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that's gone. So, bourbon has come around in the last probably what 20 years? Yeah, since uh 05. It started coming around because I was drinking bourbon and sharp uh when I moved here to Atlanta, started doing a little tasting. You're like, hey, this stuff isn't as bad. You come across the blantons, you came across a Buffalo Trace, and they were good. We drink Whitford Reserve is our maintenance bourbon here on the trusted toolbox. Uh is show safari. I don't drink it at the trusted toolbox, do I? No, I'm not sure. Not why I'm working. But this stuff is really good. But gimmicky bourbon, back to your point, you know, Blanton's is not gimmicky, it got really expensive. Not sure it's worth that number anymore. This stuff, man, it's really good. So where do you find General Thomas? How do you get a hold of it?
SPEAKER_06Well, right now we are only distributed in Kentucky um or online. So we have a you know website, generaltomasburban.com, and it ships out to almost every state. And the cool thing too is that you can uh if you order for somebody from somebody off the site, have it shipped directly to them. You can input your message on the site, and by the time it arrives to them, the message will be on it and he'll deliver it. And you know, so you don't have to be there holding the bottle to uh type it in. Does that make sense? And so it does, it is super cool, dude.
SPEAKER_02I love what you're doing. I think that's a great idea. Um, you're right, don't want to be gimmicky, but you also want to be uh you want to be different. You so here here's what Dan did different. What does Dan do differently, right? We started out with networking, getting to meet people. So we had met Dan Gorman before we got on this podcast, and Cindy was thrilled. She was so thrilled that on Sunday afternoon
AI QR Codes And Custom Messages
SPEAKER_02she was texting me saying, I can't wait for you to meet this guy at five, but you can't know anything. I'm not gonna send you anything about him. I'm like, okay, I'm good with that because I had my own radio show here in Atlanta. I'm pretty used to winging it. I've had really bad guests on. I can do it, I'll handle it, but good. This has been killer, Dan. You made an impression. How do you make an impression, everybody? Right? Let's go back to this. You hold it in a secret, then you big do the big reveal, and then you you say, hey man, I'm gonna be different. I'm gonna give you a great bourbon, which we just got done talking about, right? 27 years, 28 years ago, it was not considered good. Today, it's kind of a delicacy. It's right nice. Now you send us a bourbon, and we drink a lot of bourbon here, and there's a lot sitting back here in the bar that we killed, Alan. That's the good stuff. Here we are. This stuff's right up there with it, but it comes with a personalized message, and he delivers it on the pod right here. Solid presentation, bro. Love it.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, well, that was it was it was um very fulfilling to me to see your reaction because uh that's what I love most about it. It brings people a lot of uh, you know, it's surprising. It is uh it's it brings, yeah, it's just joyful when people do it. They're like it's I have to what you should you should watch your expression when you went uh after.
SPEAKER_02I'm gonna have to go back and watch it because I I truly was that surprised and it's that cool. I've already just texted her the uh because I she didn't uh listen, I don't know if she did, but I just texted to her. I'm like, you got me. That one was pretty cool. Five years, man. Still love doing this stuff, guys. So, Dan, how can everybody go buy this stuff?
SPEAKER_06Uh I would say if you're in Kentucky, it's it's uh especially northern Kentucky, it's distributed pretty heavily in northern Kentucky and then throughout the state. Um, but uh the most most people are getting it online, generalthomasbourbon.com. And uh they sell we sell a uh a 99 99 proof small batch that's a blend of five barrels, and then we also sell single barrels that um vary between 110 and 115 proof.
SPEAKER_05So yeah, you sloshed a lot of single barrel into my glass, by the way. I did, dude. So so when you buy it, when you buy it at the store, it doesn't have the message, or can you get this get it at the store and then attach a message to it? How does that work?
SPEAKER_06Well, I gave you a sample of what the mess what it would look like for a consumer, right? So I just uh so if you scan that, you'll see what the consumer. So he any every single bottle has General Thomas that will speak to you as soon as you buy it. He as soon as you scan it, he will introduce himself to you. He will say, Great choice. This is great bourbon. You want to hear some stories, or do you want to leave a message? And so if you keep it at home, you'll never you never have to put a custom message on it. You can just enjoy the bourbon, but you always have the option to add the custom message and change.
SPEAKER_02You could you could buy it and put like a self-affirming message on there. You need this bourbon, Chris. You need a heavy pour of this while you're watching the brain. You know what? Put the damage doll down. Damn it, people like working for you even without the damage doll.
SPEAKER_06You can say you can manifest the feeling that you get after drinking a bourbon if you have some of this bourbon.
SPEAKER_05It is delicious, it's really good. It was, man. Yeah, it's really it's really good. That is crazy. Now, do Kay you can't ship stuff like this international, can you? International? No. I don't know. It's challenging.
SPEAKER_06Is it I was just I have to ship a bottle. So we won a couple awards on the br on the um the branding and the the bottle design and the tech. And so I was I'm gonna enter this contest, and it's actually in London. It's a it's a worldwide contest, but it's so challenging to ship spirits, and it's not necessarily you can't do it, it's just uh customs and things like that. It gets held up. And so, you know, I I emailed them and I said, Does it have since we're just doing the design, does it have to have this the the bourbon in it? And they said it doesn't, but you have to put brown juice back in it because they part of the design is or part of the contest judging is how it looks, how it offsets the width of
Where To Buy And Final Takeaways
SPEAKER_06brown liquid and stuff like that, you know, how beautiful it is, and so um, so we're we're gonna experiment around tonight on how to create something that looks like bourbon that's just water. So how about other languages? Other languages? Uh I've never I've never had it before. I don't know. We we're working with our content moderation now because we you we don't want anybody recording a message. There's a share feature on it. So if you share a message that has offensive content, um that's not something we're interested in being a part of, and it can also hurt the brand. And so uh but you do dirty jokes. So you do clean dirty jokes? No, well, you just have to figure out a way to get around the content filter.
SPEAKER_02Uh, I got you. You know, my grandmother always told me, Christopher, you always have to have three clean jokes. Always have three clean jokes. Can you do you have three clean jokes? Not anymore. Okay, yeah. I got a lot of dirty ones though. Uh um, I'll email it. And you know uh Chris at the trusted toolbox.com. Send it to me.
SPEAKER_05I want to I want to listen to that's a great voice, dude. That is awesome. You know what I'm thinking about this. So my I have a son who lives in Belgium, and he's uh he's dating a a girl from Portugal, and uh so anytime I see him, I send a bottle of bourbon for him to give to his future father-in-law. And at first it was like way too strong, whatever. I mean, he kind of reacted, but now he loves it and he saves it and he savors it and uh you know saves it for when family comes over and they'll all have a little sip. And so I've been slowly kind of stepping up the level of bourbon that I send over. But wouldn't it be cool if General Thomas spoke to this guy in Portuguese? Dan, get on that. Can you make that happen?
SPEAKER_06I would uh I can't imagine why you can't do it, but I I'll I'll research it for you. And I think that, and your son's not married yet, but he's he's it's it's it's that it's I'll tell you, it's it's the perfect groomsman gift. Oh, yeah. Because you can individually you can say, you know, to you could say, Billy, we've been friends since kindergarten. Remember that time we blank, blank, blank, thanks for being my wedding. The next one could say, I know we just met last week, but you're in my wedding. I don't know why.
SPEAKER_02Dan Gorman killed it. General Thomas, Kentucky Bourbon. This has been a great episode, guys. As he mentioned and referenced, if you go back to YouTube, you'll see that's a healthy poor. And Chris and Alan have to get off this podcast so we can finish this bourbon without sloshing through the end. Dan, Kentucky Bourbon. We got it, General Thomas, Kentucky Bourbon. Anything else you want to talk about before we get you off the podcast?
SPEAKER_06Uh, I don't. There's nothing in particular. I will say that I really loved your intro. Uh uh, I liked I like what you guys do. I like uh combining business, fun, a little bourbon. It's it's really it's a good combo.
SPEAKER_02So let's go, guys. Every week, a little business, a little fun. We got into business for a reason, right? We got into business because we wanted to escape that concrete zoo. We wanted to get into business because we wanted to be in charge of ourselves. We just didn't realize that we picked up like a million customers, and we still have a million bosses, but you still have it. We're doing this for fun. Don't forget that, man. Smile everyone's a while, especially when adversity is sitting you in the face and it's just slapping you all over the place. Make it happen every week. Keep going up that mountaintop. Let's get to the success. We gotta get out of here, Alan. Gotta drink some more bourbon.
SPEAKER_04Cheers, everybody.
SPEAKER_06Bye. Thank you.
SPEAKER_02Thank you for listening to this episode of the Small Business Department. Remember, your positive attitude will help you achieve that higher altitude you're looking for in the wild world small business understanding. Until next time, we can break the water.
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