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Sip to Remember: Building Four Branches Bourbon With Purpose

• Deny Caballero • Season 8 • Episode 400

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In this episode, Deny Caballero welcomes Rick Franco, co-founder of Four Branches Bourbon, to discuss veteran entrepreneurship, responsible alcohol culture, and building a business rooted in service and honor.

Rick shares how Four Branches was created by veterans from different military branches to honor sacrifice while changing the narrative around alcohol and mental health. This episode explores entrepreneurship after service, navigating the bourbon industry, and finding harmony between work, family, and purpose.

Key Topics Covered:

  • Veteran-owned business and entrepreneurship
  • Responsible drinking and mental health awareness
  • Honoring military sacrifice through business
  • Navigating the bourbon industry
  • Finding harmony in life and leadership

Follow Security Halt! Podcast for more conversations on leadership, service, and purpose.

Chapters:
00:00 – Veteran-Owned Bourbon With a Mission
 01:15 – The Story Behind Four Branches Bourbon
 05:30 – Military Service, CIA Experience, and Leadership
 10:27 – Honoring Sacrifice Through Business
 15:55 – Changing Alcohol Culture and Responsibility
 18:48 – Mental Health and Responsible Drinking
 22:54 – Navigating the Bourbon Industry
 28:03 – Crafting a Veteran-Built Brand
 33:27 – Entrepreneurship After Military Service
 39:47 – Lessons Learned From Business Failures
 48:14 – Family, Business, and Life Harmony
 52:55 – Defining Success Beyond Profit
 55:10 – The Future of Four Branches Bourbon

 Sponsored by: Dr. Mark Gordon & Millennium Health Centers
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LinkedIn: Deny Caballero

 Connect with Rick Today!

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alfredo-franco/

Website: https://www.fourbranches.com/?srsltid=AfmBOooy2ANhz1vnVgx8z5ZsFUFarnguDV4ACE2_CqtMJJRRYkZKjarK

 Looking for custom handmade items, military memorabilia, or laser engraving? Contact Eric Gilgenast.

Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/haus_gilgenast_woodworks_main/

Website: https://www.hausgilgenastwoodworks.com/

SOF Heritage Designs Custom belt Buckles. Of the Regiment for the Regiment SOF-HD.Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sofhdesigns/

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Produced by Security Halt Media

SPEAKER_00:

Sometimes it felt easier to get shot at because you could shoot back. Being an entrepreneur is hard. I wouldn't do it if I didn't believe in it. Like I said, it's the hardest thing I've ever done.

SPEAKER_02:

Are you in the point where you right now can look and kind of take a step back and breathe a little bit? Or are you guys still on that daily grind where it's like the zoom calls scheduled for every day at 9 a.m. where it's like, oh, we got fires to put out, boys.

SPEAKER_00:

I'm getting up every day, checking the mags, I'm doing a press check and going out. But we are in that stage of the game. Private Franco is getting up and going out. It's bourbon combat right now. If four broken old dudes from different backgrounds can come together and do this, the young hard chargers out there they're getting out, or maybe they're taking their first job, and then they realize, you know, hey, this isn't for me. I want to do X, Y, or Z. Go do it. Get one pass. Go do it.

SPEAKER_02:

We'll do it live. We'll do it live. Rick Franco for Branches Bourbon.

SPEAKER_00:

How are you, sir? Denny, doing great, man. Thank you for having me on the podcast. This is really a for me, it's a true treat and an honor to be on this podcast. And uh I can't thank you enough for taking the time to do it.

SPEAKER_02:

Sir, it is my honor. What uh what you've built with your brothers is something more than just a bourbon company. Um, at a at a time where veteran suicide is at its highest, um, what you guys are doing through just your media, through everything you put out there, you're signaling that it's okay to be responsible. It's okay to honor your service and honor your time with your friends by cherishing it and coming together and treating something as what it was truly meant to be. Our great-grandfathers always surrounded themselves drinking a bourbon for those special moments, for special times. And I think that's what we get when we see your your branding and what we see from your team. It's not about going out there full throttle to the bottle, it's about enjoying something. And before we dive into that story, we have to dive into how it came to be. How did four guys from different branches coalesce around this one idea of making amazing bourbon?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, man. I, you know, facetiously and jokingly, I'll say it's because one Marine outsmarted the other branches and talked them into it, right? So there's that. But really, the the the backstory, Denny, and we'll go to the way back and we'll talk about the origins of why, you know, why I start four branches, why I wrangled in three friends from three different three other branches of the military to come on board and do this. Uh you got to go back now 25 years.

unknown:

Right?

SPEAKER_00:

25 years ago, I was a kid from South Louisiana that went to school in uh in Virginia, in central Virginia. I went to Virginia Military Institute. Uh while I was there, I also enlisted in the Marine Corps, ironically. I got talked into it. It shows you how smart I am. I got talked into enlisting in the Marines because they said it would be two good buddies said, hey, it'd be fun. You do a couple obstacle courses, you'll have a great time, Rick. I was like, Yeah, sounds good. Let's do it. Next thing I know, I'm standing on yellow footprints, having a DI scream in my face. I'm going, what the fuck is happening here? So uh at school, you know, do the Marine Corps thing, but while I was at school, and those back then, back in that day of that time period, it was all guys. Right. So naturally, like joining any unit, you become friends with other people. So I've become good friends with a buddy of mine, Greg Wright Jr. Uh Greg and I were at school together. We I commissioned before him. We went uh we were at Lejeune together, both as uh Marine officers, uh running around doing what I call second dumb second lieutenant shit. You know, I think you got the world by the tail uh for four years, and then I moved on to a B billet back then. I did a B billet down in New Orleans where I ran uh all the counter-narcotics for the Marine Corps reserves, did all the counter-drug missions, JTF6 missions uh at that level. And that kind of leads me how I got into CIA, but and that leads me into Greg's story. So I did that, and it was during that time that uh attending a couple Army schools, the first time I'd ever been to a few Army schools uh down, you know, behind the fence line, so to speak, at uh over there. And so uh I get approached upon graduation of one course, and literally it's like out of a movie back in the 90s, it's like a piece of copy paper with a bunch of numbers written on it. And I didn't know anything about contracting. You know, this is a this is the height of like 2004, high of the war stuff going on. I'm doing a rebuild. And it's like back then I was a captain, and they said, you know, hey skipper, you might be good at some of this. I was like, good at what? What is this? And kind of looted to it. I freaking start dialing, dialing. It's like I'm dialing for dollars. I just start dialing a number. Somebody picks up the guy's in Jordan, and he's like, I'm like, you're in like Jordan, like, you know, the country I'm on. He's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Hey, look, I'm gonna send you this and you go do this, and so it was it was a whirlwind, man. Next thing I know, I'm I'm at a vetting uh not knowing what I'm doing. Showed up, spent six weeks, you know, I think it was probably two weeks, two or two solid, two or three solid weeks going through basically some a selection for lack of a better word. They called it vetting back then, but a selection. And and even at then at the end of the day, it's like you really didn't realize who you were working for until the very end.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh man, it's like a Tom Clancy novel.

SPEAKER_00:

So, you know, I did my first did my first deployment with them with the eight with the CIA as a contractor in Iraq. Um, a lot of gnarly shit happened. Um, just it was it was you know, I saw, I tell people I saw more, and it's just timing. I didn't, you know, I deployed during the Kosovo campaign. That was my time period, and then I got out, and uh I saw more things with the CIA than I did with the Marines.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, yeah. It was a different time frame in that those early years of the GWAT in Iraq.

SPEAKER_00:

I tell people all the time, I sit and it blows my mind while if we sit and we think about those time periods, there will never be that again. That type of war and the GWAT in the early days from 02 to 04, 05, that time period will never happen again. The things that we did and could get away with, or just it was surreal. Yeah. Right? It's surreal. You show up in Baghdad and they got they they're flying in a yellow fucking Hummer, like H2, like you guys trying to get us killed? I mean, it's just it's surreal, the things that you I sitting back, I sitting, I think I saw or I was like, Are you gonna be kidding me? But so that leads me into how we started. I did deployment, a bunch of you know, crazy shit happened for us, so a bunch of first times uh within the CIA at where we were. No, destroyed a base, left a band, not abandoned, evacuated a base had never happened before. Pretty interesting to throw 29 thermites into a uh secure location.

SPEAKER_02:

Um that brings to back it that brings to mind a very recent action movie based on real events.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. So, you know, we doing those type of things. Anyway, I come back to the States, uh a little storm called Katrina hits and wipes out my place, and uh I'm waiting for deployments. But I was in the office uh probably right before that deployment, and I was helping the ladies in the office go through resumes. They don't know how to read military resumes, right? And the program we were on, you really you couldn't apply on the internet. It was not going, there was no going to LinkedIn or ND and say, I want to do this. It was like guys handing me a piece of copy paper, like you saying, hey man, I got a buddy who's doing this, but you still have here's an email, send your resume to this email. Right. So then I was helping. And I remember Clear's Day, I was just talking about earlier day. The phone rang, one of the ladies picked up the phone, starts talking, and I'm not paying attention, I'm on the other side of the office, and she's like, Hey, Rick, uh, there's a guy here that says he went to VMI. I'm like, okay, give me that shit. Let me let me go see who this is. Pick up the phone, and it's Greg. Right? And we we hadn't seen each other since Lejeune, uh, because we used to party together and different units and all that. And so we we catch up, hot minute, we catch up, and I say, okay, I got you, brother. You're in. Because it during that time period, in the 03-04 time period, it was you had to be vouched for for the most part, right? And it was by reputation. So I vouched for Greg. So then 20, you know, fast forward to December 7th, uh, 2005, Greg goes out to his first mission, and this is all open source and now it's all declassified. Um, day one, night one out the wire, does what he was training to do as a Marine Infantry officer. Uh actually ground intel officer, same thing, just one more schooling, and he tried to do as a CIA detective agent. Right? Everybody came home from that mission, but he didn't. He made sure they came home, but he he didn't. Right? He ended up taking a uh a round to the leg. It was cold. They they got in contact.

SPEAKER_02:

This episode of Security Hall is brought to you by Dr. Mark Gordon and Millennium Health Store. If you've listened to this show, you know how seriously we take brain health, recovery, and long-term performance, especially for veterans and high performers. Dr. Mark Gordon is one of the leading experts in neuroendocrinology and traumatic brain injury. He's just released his new book, Peptides for Health, both the Medical Edition, Volume 1, and the Consumer Edition, Volume 1, are available right now. The book breaks down how peptide therapy supports brain health, hormonal balance, recovery, and resilience in a way that's practical and evidence-based. You can get 25% off the book by using code PTH25 at checkout, valid through March 15th. And for Dr. Gordon's proprietary health products, Security Health listeners can receive 10% off if they use the code phase2P. Click the link in the episode description to find out more and visit Millennium Health Store today.

SPEAKER_00:

They had to, and you can everybody can read this on this on the website. Had to abandon the vehicle. Uh hard point, return fire, suppress fire, waiting for the QRF to come. Which back then the days, guys, the QRFs like two other dudes and another Hummer, another uh beamer, pardon me. Um so did all that, took around, failed to put a tourniquet on because it's it's cold, probably didn't feel really truly feel it, perhaps, and was just paying attention to making sure that the men that he was charged to take care of were gonna make it home. And then when, you know, my brother showed up, he was slumped down, slumped over, his gun, and then he was gone. Right? So then I think it was the same day, stateside, December 7th, I get the phone call, you know, girl in the all lady in the office crying. I can't understand. I was like, calm down. What's going on? She says, you know, putty was his call sign, putty's gone, putty's gone. And I at the time I didn't realize that he'd had that call sign. And I was like, who? And she said, Greg. And that just dropped me, bro. So I flew across. Uh I was like, I'll be in DC the next day. I flew literally my house is in shambles. I'm living in a tent in Louisiana in my front yard. I grabbed my wallet uh and I freaking head to the airport, fly to DC, buy a suit, and fly to Germany, and make sure I'm in Germany before he comes home. I meet them in Germany and then I fly back to Dover to be the presiding officer uh over over him and the uh 11 other warriors that were coming home that night. Um so that's now fast forward to three years ago. Right? That was 20 years ago, just this past December. Fast forward three years ago, I'm driving home from work. Denny, I tell people whether they believe me or not, it it's it's the truth. I'm driving home and I tell people, you hear voices in your head right now, guys, gals, everyone out there and podcasting. Don't listen to them. 99% of the time is a bad idea. I can vouch for that. But this one said do a barrel bourbon for the guys and uh on the program. Right? Greg was given the first star post posthumously uh on the wall at Langley Headquarters, CIA headquarters, which changed policy because before that time there had been no contractors from that program given. He was the first. Since that time, there are five more guys. Guys I either knew personally or knew by reputation. Um driving home and it's like literally do a barrel of bourbon for the guys on the program, is what it said. Which ironically, because I didn't drink bourbon at the time. I came from a Scotch family. But I thought this can't be hard. And I thought this would be super simple. I can A, I can go buy a barrel of bourbon, B, I got a pretty good printer, I can get some stickers, and C, bottles gotta be cheap. And D, we can sell this on Facebook. I'll sell out in a day, and everybody will be happy, and you it's all good. One flaw in that whole plan. You cannot sell bourbon on Facebook. Uncle Sam will let you know right away. So public service announcement.

SPEAKER_02:

Do not try to do that. That's the Marine in me, right? I was gonna say that's a Marines idea right there.

SPEAKER_00:

So then I uh I ended up calling Mike Trott, who's our Air Force component. Mike and I, Mike had been a CIA uh staff officer. I was a contractor. Uh same division within the agency at different times, but Mike and I had worked together in the civilian world. And I actually knew Mike's son. He was on one of the bases I was at. So I kind of told Mike, hey, this is what I want to do for the for the guys on the program, honor this. And then we we started talking and we we joke. I joke all the time because I I love them to death, but I've worked with a ton of these guys. I was like, you know what? Fuck, it's 2022, 21, 22. Everybody needs a Navy SEAL these days. So I mean, I mean, so I was like, well, we'll call Harold. And Harold's old school SEA, 33 years retired command master chief, was in dev group, but the entire time in the teams. Uh so then the three of us got together and it the light bulb, we were talking about this, not drinking our bourbon, drinking other bourbon, trying to figure it out. Um, the light bulb went off, and we said, shit, one more guy from the army, and we could have four guys. So a mutual friend introduced us to RJ. I think you know RJ. Um, introduced us to RJ, and we chat RJ was on movie set doing his Hollywood thing, and we we talked to him, and he's like, I'm in. And then take four knuckle dragon war fighters, and it took us like six months to figure out the name four branches. What should the name be? Yeah, yeah, what are we gonna call this? And yeah, we have I got pay, I got old papers of just different names. What do we call them? The bourbon, what we and finally was like, what about four branches? It's I don't know, Mike or somebody came up. I was like, second light bulb goes off. Yes.

SPEAKER_02:

I can only imagine you guys as social media content creator and managers like, all right, we're we're gonna make this up. We're gonna say that it was on a hiking trip, you guys were climbing a mountain, and the sun came over, we just knew instantly. Yeah. No, we got together.

SPEAKER_00:

I was like, six months, what are we still calling this company? So, but you know, we we started to put it together, Denny, and you know, thank you for the gracious introduction, but we struggled too, right? And this is where I guess it gets a little deep. We struggled the first year, first six, nine months, because we had what I call a crisis of conscience. We had friends take their lives, right? We see it all the time, and it's happened every year to date, and it won't surprise me, it will it will crush me if it happens this year, but every year I've lost friends. Um and so we we I didn't know if we wanted to be a part of an industry that is plays a big part. We'll call it like I call it like I see it. Alcohol plays a big part in men and women, whether in or out of uniform, uh it plays a big part uh in what I call the fatal decision. Absolutely. Absolutely. And I didn't know, none of us knew, especially me. I didn't know if I wanted to be a part of that. But then I we we we sat back for a little bit, about two months, like what are we gonna do? And we really reflected on, and then I kind of remember something I tell my kids. I got two great young boys grown into young men. They're and they're you know, they're 10 and 12, and that is if you bring me a problem, I tell them, I said, boys, if you bring me a problem, you gotta bring me a solution. Might not work, but you gotta bring me something. Don't just come tell me there's something messed up. Tell me what you can do to fix it. And and then I was like, that that resonated within myself. I was like, I need we need to do that. Alcohol's not going away, guys. We tried it in the we tried prohibition, right? I failed, it's here. Multi-billion dollar industry, right? It's staying. So if we if we're if we're gonna go into this, let's not be part of the problem. Let's be part of a new uh solution, a new narrative. Let's change the narrative, right? Between, you know, the the mission of completion completing the bottle. That's not the mission. Let's take it back. And so that's where we kind of started to come up with, and we came up with ourselves. There was no marketing agency that pitched it or did it. It was hey, we believe everybody uh serves something. You and I, we served our country, but everybody serves a community. So on every one of our bottles, we say serve honorably. Because if you serve a community, do so with honor. Yeah. And then we say drink honorably. It's not drink responsibly, guys or gals. What that's a different message. Very important. But but for us, what I want it to mean, because it it it was very important and dear to my heart, is that look, if you're the last one to come home from downrange, do not dishonor the memories of the men and women that didn't make it back. But more importantly, don't dishonor your own memory. You're sitting right here. Okay, right. Do not do that. So that's why we say and we I believe it, we mean it. Look, we've been there. Quit drinking to forget. Yes, man. You have to sip to remember. Absolutely. That is the message. And that sip to remember, I want people to know, is not just uh we will always sip to remember those. And come home. Every one of us, we've got a Greg in our lives. Replace the name Greg with whoever it is. We all have it. We've either lost in combat or whatever it may be.

SPEAKER_02:

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SPEAKER_00:

That we will always do. But how about take a minute and sip to remember two guys getting together on a podcast for a first time, brothers in arms, sip to remember your son's first baseball game, your daughter's wedding, change of command. You name it. Pick the moment. And that's equally as important.

SPEAKER_02:

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00:

That is our message, man. That's what that's our North Star, right? Yeah. That's how we came together. Greg and his sacrifice for me is always for our company. That is our North Star. And our sip to remember is our azimuth. And that keeps us. That's our moral compass, man. That's how we continue to run this business.

SPEAKER_02:

Man, you're you're hitting on something that gets me fired up because that gives everybody room at the table to celebrate. Everybody. I made it known. I didn't slip into full addiction, but when I was at my worst and I was struggling with my demons, I rationalized and made it part of my nightly routine because it helps me sleep. And then it quickly became, well, it helps me relax. And it became the, well, it does this and this. How many of our friends have we lost because of that slippery slope? And because I caught it on to it earlier and I and I made the conscious decision of understanding that it was never some something that I developed on my own. Drinking became part of my life because of I was a kid playing football. And then we drank after the game. And then I joined the military. And then in 80 seconds, I felt like I was somebody when we drank together and we celebrated. But I always took it one step further. I had to have two drinks. I had to be the guy that was completely blasted because I felt more comfortable and I dealt with anxiety with alcohol. So I made a conscious decision, a conscious decision for me not to drink. But I always tell people you need to make the decision for yourself. And nothing's worse than being the guy that doesn't drink, being around a bunch of people that are just slamming them back and then constantly pressuring you. Come on, just drink, just drink. The message that you're sending and the line, the clear line that you've drawn, brings people like me to the fold to say, absolutely, that's what I want to be a part of. If I go somewhere with my brothers and we're going to celebrate something, a meaningful day, a celebration of life. I want people to be able to drink it and honor the moment. Just like old our grandfathers, great-grandfathers, the old, the old style of man culture, not this new thing that was pushed on us. It's relatively new to be like, ah, drink to excess, drink to the point where you can't remember. No, that's not the reality. We should honor those precious moments. And if you want to, break open some four branches bourbon and celebrate with it. Forget.

SPEAKER_00:

That is my goal. Like to me, that is one of our one of my, I guess, uh key indicators of success for the company. Yeah. Someone breaks it open at a wedding to do a toast. You you do a toast at I we just did a toast at Greg's 20th year reunion with four branches at a funeral. You do these things, these moments, it you couldn't be, you couldn't say it any better. And what I tell people, look, if you don't drink, and this is coming from a guy that owns an alcohol company, right? With with my brothers, if you don't drink, don't start. If you're sober, stay sober. But you have a seat at our table. I've got investors in this company that don't drink. They they went sober, right? Bourbon was for them was their demon. But the fact that they're invested, meaning they put money into this company is because of the message. Yes. Right? That that's it's almost an oxymoron when you think about it, right? Like I I'm sober, I'm recovering. Why would I invest in something that may have caused me emotional and mental pain that was a part of my that was a trouble trouble in my life, it's because we're changing the message. And that's to your point, you know, if I if you're gonna go out and say, I'm getting four branches and we're gonna slam it tonight, don't buy our bottle. It's not for you. But if you say, hey, I'm gonna remember Fred, John married Jane, or my son was born today. Yeah, this is it. Please, please. And you know, we all agreed when we started this company of four, we said not only were we gonna change the message, we're gonna give back to the community that we came from. So you know, that's very important. Yes, we gotta sell a bottle because if we don't sell the bottles, then we can't do the give back. And that's really we've been blessed, Denny, by that. I mean, honestly, I never saw this coming, man. Law of unintended consequences. We never saw this coming. I mean, we get people have asked, you know, hey, can we can you send us a bottle of this for this this fundraiser, this auction? We get hit all the time. And uh majority of the time we say yeah. So in two years, those bottles have auctioned off at different events for over$600,000. I mean, I I you know, uh we make me swear I'm a Catholic man here, Rick.

SPEAKER_02:

Come on.

SPEAKER_00:

We had we we did uh there was a bottle that we did for uh I think they changed the name, but it was Special Forces Charitable Trust. Yeah, yeah, SF Trust. Yeah, yeah, SF Trust. Uh RJ, RJ and I went last year and we had a bottle paired with a flag, and he jumped the bottle in. That whole thing went for close to 30. And I think we had one, he was at one the several months ago, high 20s. It's a message, man. I mean, they and we're honored because they could take something else, but it's it's what it's what we do. It's what it's our give back and it's our message.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. And and like I said before, uh, you know, when we started recording a couple of tries before, it is a difficult thing to tread. It is a difficult thing to go into this market space, to bring four brothers together from all the different branches and say, we're not gonna market this like the traditional way. We're gonna stand on our own and we're gonna say, we want you to drink this in small moments of victory and celebration. Where if you did it the other way, if you just marketed it with adrenaline and pushing it towards people, you'd make more money. And it's but what what gets us hyped as veterans and service members that are aware that are conscious about what's happening in our community, in our warrior tribe, is when somebody says, hey, we know as Americans, this is going to be part of the system. This is gonna be part of our American way of life. People are going to drink. We're gonna message it and sell it completely different. And we see it, we feel it. And I and I know you you you get you probably get the comments and you probably talk to a lot of people throughout your day, but it is remarkable to see you guys take the stance where anybody else would say, fuck it. I'm gonna make fast money. You're willing to say no, we have to draw the line.

SPEAKER_00:

100% because it's not what it's about. Yeah, it's a business. I gotta make money, right? We gotta make money to keep the lights on and do what we're doing. There's I'll never say not. I mean, otherwise we'd be a nonprofit. But that that doesn't work either, right? If we're gonna be impactful, we're gonna do it the way we see fit, right? If we're gonna make the impact, it's gonna be because to your point, and it's not it's counterintuitive, right? But we're gonna stand by that, like, hey, you know what? We believe in this, I believe in this so much, we believe in it so much that it will sell, people will buy it, and they are, right? And yeah, we gotta move it. I I trust me, I need to move it because then I can't we can't give back four percent. Yeah, right? That's incredible. Four percent? Four percent of our gross off the top. That's awesome. That is really important to us, man. And that that's what I think, and we we want people to connect with it, right? We want people to to know the origin story because we all have them. And at the end of the day, this is not a bourbon that's made, that's uh a Rick, Mike, Harold, and RJ. This bourbon, when we can transition it, this becomes the warrior tribe version bourbon. This becomes I'm the I'm the E5 walking in to Class Six. That's my bourbon, right? That that represents me because all four branches, great. I understand, guys, there's Coast Guard and Space Force, right? So I get that, but but you know, if you're we just came up that way, man. So it's like I want at the end of the day this to be the bourbon of the military and of the veterans. And it don't care what branch you were in, you know, we say four branches, pick your branch. Pick your branch, right? I just didn't serve with any Space Force guys because they didn't exist at the time. And there were, you know, love my Coast Guard brothers and sisters, but I didn't see you guys in the deserts of Kandahar. Yeah. You're still there's still room at the table for you. There's still room at the table, absolutely. 100%. I mean, look, you know, we embrace it all, right? You're part if you're part of the the warrior tribe, and if you served in the military or first responder, you're part of that tribe.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. Rick, I gotta ask you though, it's you can't just come into the market and just push any sort of bourbon out there and think it's gonna sell. Like, how did you guys come up with the idea and where did you like who was the bourbon entrepreneur or the the the fashion, the one that was the the most, you know, I would say fanatical about bourbon tasting and understood what needed to go in it because it's gotta be a complex situation to try to create something like a good tasting bourbon that sets itself apart from everything else that's out in the market. How'd you guys like come up with that?

SPEAKER_00:

Two parts of that answer. One, none of us didn't realize what we were getting into. Right? Me as a Marine, I was just probably too freaking stupid to realize. I don't know what the Air Force guy's issue was, but I can tell you that was mine, right? Too stupid, too stubborn. We chose to enter, ironically, probably what is the most difficult industry in the United States, one of them, from a legality standpoint, right? There the legality and regulation. Alcohol is regulated heavier than weapons, than guns. It's easier to be a gun manufacturer than it is to be an alcohol manufacturer. So we entered the most complex industry I think we could have entered. Because every state has a different regulation. That's right. Yeah. The federal regulation, the state regulation, it's uh it's massively complicated. And look, I learned a lot in two years, but we didn't know a thing about it. Um and so, but what we did know how to do, right? We all came from either Mike and Harold and RJ's case, special operations background, Mike and I from the intelligence side of the house, we do know, and you you know, you you'll get this being uh SF, you do know that we knew the resources to tap into or where to go find those resources, uh, and then take that intel, digest it, and produce something that we can go with. And that's kind of what we did. So I sought out through cold calls. I end up finding, and a lot of this is luck too, guys, um, and you know, luck and the guiding hand from upstairs. Um I end up connecting with the largest bourbon broker at the time in the world. Cold call. I call this guy, and he now he's an investor in the company. And while the board, one of our senior advisors, I call this guy, Jeff, and I was like, uh, because I got his name from another person. So once again, here's a copy piece of carbon, a piece of paper copy, and I'm going down numbers. Uh and I call and I I kind of introduce myself. Hey, this is I'm Rick Franco. This is what I kind of got, what I'm doing. And I think I have this great idea. And you know, coming from the military and spending time in the CIA, it's uh everything's siloed, right? You got your little rights bowl, you got your little silo compartmentalized, right? That's how we operate. So I said, uh, I got this great idea, but I'm gonna send you an NDA before we talk. And he goes, Yeah, I don't do NDAs, so we can end it right now. And I was sitting in the same office. I was like, you know what? It's Tuesday. We don't do NDAs on Tuesday either. So next thing I know, he's invited, he lives here in Nashville. He invites uh Mike and I to his house. Doesn't know us, never met us. I'm like, this guy's crazy. He don't know who we are. We sits down at his at his dining room table, and for two hours he tries to talk us out of doing this. Oh wow. Like he gives us two hours, and like I said, Maureen, too dumb, too stupid to hear it. Uh, we walk away going, oh, that was good, but let's go do this. Um and then he said, Okay, if you guys are gonna do this, and I'm gonna suggest you go to Bar Sound Bourbon Company and go visit with those guys. So we I you know assembled the Avengers, so to speak, blew the horn, and Harold and RJ came in. And imagine getting four guys, we all have our tastes, and I wasn't the biggest bourbon guy. Mike probably was the biggest bourbon drinker, and it wasn't Harold or RJ or myself, but getting the four of us together, and we're at Barstown up in their lab with their blenders, trying to figure out, you know, a first of all, you got four alpha males trying to figure out what profile you like, what works, what doesn't work, we're tasting it. And uh another bit of like happenstance luck, just like getting a call with Jeff, who was the largest bourbon broker in the world. Um they say, hey guys, Steve Nally is gonna come in. We're like, Steve, who? Steve Nally is a master distiller. He's also 40 years Hall of Fame bourbon legend. He starts he and his wife start the bourbon trail. He was a master distiller at Maker's Mark for 30 years. He he's been there. So and they say, hey, he likes to come by and say hello to all the clients. Because we're in this laboratory, like a chemical laboratory, right? With different samples and glasses. And he walks in and we must have been giving each other shit, like we do all the time when we're together. And he's like, Who are you guys? So we we tell him who we are and what we're trying to do, and uh, we actually have it all on film. We're lucky with that aspect. He looks at his assistant and says, Hey, clear the schedule. Steve's probably 6'5, 6'6, lanky, in his late seven mid to late 70s at the time, pressed jeans, white crisp button-down shirt, rolls up his sleeves, looks at us and goes, Boys, let's make some bourbon. And it was actually Steve who helped us credit us with he's like, You guys are four branches. Why don't we go with a four-grain bourbon? Why don't we add wheat? And we're like, you know, that actually makes a lot of sense. There's four of us, four grains. We can also now say one grain to represent each branch of the military. So we liked it. And we we blended, we tried it, and man, we came. Steve gets it all, and he had to go get other bourbon from another warehouse and gets this jar, and they they're mixing the ratios, and they said, We've got it. Gentlemen, we'd like you to try this. We're like, this wow, and we're all in a line. It's my it's Harold, it's myself, it's Mike, and it's RJ. And across the table is Dan Callaway, who's the blender, and Steve. So they give us this thimble, Denny. It's like a thimble man.

SPEAKER_01:

Harold.

SPEAKER_00:

And Harold's looking at it. Looks at all this, goes, guys, this smells really good. And we're like, oh man, I can't wait. Can't wait. Next thing you know, the Navy's heel goes. Of course. And and and Steve and and uh Dan, their eyes get as big as saucers. And Harold's like, he looks at us, he goes, and he's got this great North Carolina accent. He goes, guys, that's some good shit. And we're like, Harold, we wouldn't know. And it's and then Mike's like, damn it, Harold. Damn it, Harold. So they had to go back, they had to recreate it. And we tasted it, and I mean, and then it came out to be this right here, which is our founder's blend. And we we captured, we're so blessed from a from a taste standpoint, lightning in a bottle. We really captured some special, you know, and it's proven because it appeals to so many different people as far as profiles.

SPEAKER_02:

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SPEAKER_00:

Um, and that's that's kind of how we came together, right? That's how that's how it started. Now, since then, I've learned about A lot with my palate, and I go to every bottling. I taste the I taste it before it goes in the bottle on mass production on every one. Oh wow. We're one of the very few. They say we're one of the very few brands, if not the only brand they've ever seen, where we are there the day of bottling every time. We've done five bottlings to date since we started. And we tasted because, man, one, it's it's our names on the on the package, so to speak. It's like our names are behind it. But then to the earlier point, a more somber point, like this represents to me the names of those that aren't here. So it's gotta be exceptionally good. So that's I hope that answered your question. Oh, 100%. That was damn it, Harold.

SPEAKER_02:

That's incredible. The uh the attention to detail, it's I mean, I just from watching different documentaries and different things, it the process is volatile. You have to have people that know what they're doing. Um, otherwise you're just guys making moonshine.

SPEAKER_00:

And the fact that you and you think about it, if you don't know really what you're doing, and you would go the full length, let's say you wait four years, you could have, you know, cat piss that comes out of that barrel. And you've wasted four, you've spent four years and money on that. So it you gotta get it right. Yeah. Right? Otherwise, that's not gonna work.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, exactly. And the one thing that um you alluded to that a lot of people don't understand, like I always advocate for our veterans during their transition to look at being an entrepreneur, look at being a business owner. Certainly not not suited for everybody. Not everybody's gonna want to stay up and and grind and hustle, but when we see successes like four branches, we tend to forget that behind all that success, behind the media campaigns, that there's a lot of freaking endless nights where you guys are brainstorming. There's a lot of hard work that goes on in the background. And I probably already know the answer to this. Are you in the point where you right now can look and kind of take a step back and breathe a little bit? Or are you guys still on that daily grind where it's like, you know, the the Zoom calls scheduled for every day at 9 a.m. where it's like, oh, we got fires to put out, boys.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, brother, I'm I'm kidding up every day. I'm kidding up every day, checking the mags, making, doing a press check, and and going out. It is it is real, we are in that stage of the game. Now, I want to get back to a stage where I can sit back with a cup of coffee, pretend to be an officer again, and go, hmm, looking good. Move that shit over there, do that. But no, I'm uh, you know, Private Franco is kitting up and going out. It's uh we're we are in that, it's it's you know, it's bourbon combat right now, especially in the industry. But I wouldn't do it if I didn't believe in it, right? It's hard. I'll tell you, like I said, it's the hardest thing I've ever done. I joke, I joke, and uh I don't want anybody to take it the wrong way because uh I just don't, but sometimes I felt easier to get shot at because you could shoot back. This is this is stuff. Being an entrepreneur is hard, but uh we hope that we're an example. Look, I'm the young, I'm the baby of the group at 53, right? It goes from 53 to 64, I think Harold is. If four, you know broken old dudes from different backgrounds can come together and do this, you young hard, the young hard chargers out there that are getting out, or maybe they're they taking their first job, and then they realize, you know, hey, this isn't for me. I want to do X, Y, or Z, go do it. Yeah, get one pass in the around the sun.

SPEAKER_02:

Go do it. Well, it's important to see it that you know to pull back the curtain, pull back the layers, and and see that it's still a worthy cause, that it's still a day-to-day endeavor. Uh, there's sure there's there's individuals out there that can, you know, bring, bring something out of just the thought process and bring it into market, bring it out into full production and be set for life. But for a vast majority of people, even when you think they're 100% successful, even when you think that they're off, you know, drinking and under an umbrella and on the beach, the reality is you have to be grateful for the hard work. You gotta fall in love with the process and you gotta understand every little win is worth savoring. And every day that you stay up at 2 a.m., you gotta be grateful for that because you prayed for it. At some point, you prayed for that and God's delivering it. I'm just pushing that, you know.

SPEAKER_00:

And it made me think of it, you know, one of the things that I think we, and I say we, like the warrior tribe, because I love you using that word, struggle with when we leave service is just that service, act of service, staying connected to whatever brotherhood or tribe you're a part of. Right? Doing this has allowed the four of us to stay connected. I talk to guys that I served with in the Marine Corps, that I served with in the agency uh daily because of the bourbon, because of this. It for me, for us, it's still we are still serving honorably. Because that's who you become, that's who you are, it's who we are wired to be. You know, I've been very blessed and fortunate to be part of and tied into the the special operations world, uh, the the agency intelligence world, the the the shadowy elements. I've been very blessed to be, you know, have touched that, so to speak, pierced that veil. Um, because it's a very small, tight-knit community, right? We're all one degree of separation from somebody. You know, RJ, RJ's my business partner, right? And I'm sure we you know Dagan, Dagan and I serve together, right? So it's it's that, but once again, four branches for us and doing what we're doing allows us to serve. So if you're an entrepreneur out there, I would dare say if you find something you're passionate about that you're serving about, you have a like you have a better odds of being successful, no guarantee. But you have a better odds than if you're out there just to chase the dollar. Yes. Yes. Yeah. That's why it's it's so important. Yeah. Chasing the dollar will ultimately fail. Yeah. Right. Been there, done it. Like so I'm speaking, I speak from experience.

SPEAKER_02:

Those are the real lessons that matter, though. I I I tell people, even if you fail, uh, this is not this is not my concept. This came from a better man, a better commander from um A-17, um Aaron Bush, one of the best commanders I ever had the pleasure of having in my time in service. But one thing that he he changed, he's remarkable. He changed our culture and gave us something that we didn't have before he got there. And it's still the same. The mission statement still hangs um as you enter the battalion. But he talked about failing fast, failing forward. If you're out in this space, man, understand you're gonna fail. You're you're gonna make mistakes. 2025, I failed a lot. 2026, I'm probably gonna fail some more. But uh for all of you out there that think that this is easy and that you know you see the the memes, the posts, oh, it's it's gotta be easy life. No, and I don't want you to get that idea, but I want you to understand that for every every hard lesson learned, I was able to take that. And same, I guarantee it's the same for you, Rick. You you have a catalog of all the things that didn't go right, that didn't work out. And then that helps you refine.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, you're and you have to do it, right? You have to do it, speaking in military terms. I gotta do it to build my battle plan.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_00:

I know that, like, okay, well, we we we shot that those rounds downrange, and there was no effect on target. Yeah. And unfortunately, you know, unlike the military or in or in the world I was in, I could just go get more bullets. This equates to shit, I shot a lot of money and that didn't work. Yeah. Harder to go get more money. I wish I had money like I had bullets back in the day. You and me both. It'd be a lot of simple though. But but you have to have that. You have to go through that to understand. And it does make you a better person. Yeah. Right? And I love that. Fail, fail fast, fail forward. I love that. That's that's that is huge.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, it it's helped me a lot. I didn't understand how much it would come in play post-military. Uh, that that uh again, where you're at, sir. You made a huge impact on a lot of us, and that information stayed with me, and I've utilized it. I I'm able to continue this and uh grow this business because yeah, we're gonna make mistakes. You have to iterate, you have to continue pushing forward. Version 1.0, probably, you know, isn't gonna work for you. You know, redefine, rewrite that plan of action, get the version two out there, but do it fast. Fall in love with it. And I I tell you, this is it follow the companies like four branches, follow Rick, follow these guys are out there. And the most important takeaway that I want to share with you is um the audience listening at home is don't be afraid to try. Don't be afraid to get out there and try something new. Uh, I I can only imagine the fear of presenting this plan to your wife in the initial concept.

SPEAKER_00:

Brother.

SPEAKER_02:

And it's like, what?

SPEAKER_00:

You're doing what? Bird, excuse me? Yeah. Luckily, once again, you know, maybe it's my my charm. I don't know. But I talked her into the company. She's she is the director of operations, and honestly, she all anybody who's ever flown a helicopter, you wonder how the thing stays in the air. You're looking at a thousand pieces going in different directions that moves. There's a mystical force, I'm convinced of it, that holds it together. That it that's that's her within the company.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. I I convinced my wife to come on board as well for finances because I'll be honest, I don't like math. And uh Marie was lucky to get two plus two. After the first year having to do my books, I quickly realized that that was not gonna be something I continued.

SPEAKER_00:

But that's our superpower, right? That's our that's our superpower to understand what we to self-recognize what you don't know and go seek out the source to do it. We did that in the military all our lives. Like, uh fucking tribal chief is, but I can't win that. Let me go find out who does this.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. You know, one thing that I I do want to, you know, ask you and bring into the the forefront of it is this life of creating something bigger than yourself with a big mission, with lots of, you know, you have great ambition to bring all this stuff out into fruition. It can quickly become the most important focal point of your life. How have you been able to balance being a man of family, being somebody that puts the family first, taking care of the kids? What are some things that you've established and built into your daily structure to make sure that you are able to put, you know, yourself, your family, and and being somebody that's present rather than letting it become an obsession?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I thought, hey, Danny, you're hitting something very, very true, very personal. And it it for sure in the in 23 and probably part of 24, I failed at that. Absolutely. Because it does become all-encompassing. Right. And so what what I've had to what I've done and what I would tell people is one, you have to have the discipline to remember family first always. Right. So for me, it's hey, after a certain time of night, I'm done. It's off. You know, first take care of your health. I mean, I'm I'm gonna sling right now because of rotator cuff surgery, but I still get up and do the bike. First thing in the morning, don't check your phone. I do not look at my phone first thing. That's good. I won't look at until I'm done with PT and I've had a cup of coffee. And it's learning like my Jen and I, we talked about because it's very easy for us to talk nothing but work, right? We got two wonderful boys in practice. So it's like, hey, you know what? At this time of night, we are not talking about four branches. It is not happening. Don't look at the phone, turn it off. Because if we weren't owners and we were just worker bees in some corporation, I wouldn't do that. Yeah. Right? So we we've had to have, you have to set, I guess what I'm trying to say, you have to set personal boundaries. And you have to have the discipline to stick to it to remember, hey, if this whether this rises or sinks, the only people that are always gonna be there for me are my family. So you have to be there for them. And you you that is that is hyper important for us.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, you you hit on something that it's um I talk about a lot. And again, looking looking through that veil, be completely honest. Like, you're gonna fail at this. I failed at this. Number one thing I did for my board, my whiteboard, my my it's you know, it's an old warrant officer. I got like 15 whiteboards, you gotta plan, you gotta write it all out. Number one thing I did for this next year was reorganize and restructure all my contracts for the simple fact that you're not paying for all of my life, for all of my time. And you gotta be able to put your family first. Like being being, there's nothing worse than being a spouse to somebody that's addicted to this for their work, for everything. A hundred percent.

SPEAKER_00:

And I've been guilty of it. Same year, right? Horribly guilty. But recognize it, fail, fail fast, and be like, okay, this is here's the simple things I want to do. Not look at my phone in the morning. Wait till I'm after the first cup of coffee and worked out. And same thing at night. Certain time of night, I don't care how many times my phone ding-ding-dings with stupid texts of people talking. It's not critical. It was critical to call me. Right? Yeah. So, you know, it's it I I I totally get because I'm not only juggling this, I gotta juggle a day job. Oh man. And two kids in every sport.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, that's that's the reality of it. That's um, there's a big sacrifice, but it you know, it brings it brings to mind something that um a recent guest, uh Lucas uh Seminer from uh vetclaims.ai, great entrepreneur, great source of in. I mean, the guy drops these little pearls of wisdom that are just the you know, the he did it to me last year. He defined something for me that stayed with me for the entire year, and then he was one of my first guests for this year, and he said something that I'm now gonna be echoing for probably the next 200 episodes. Lay it on me. Don't chase harmony. I'm sorry, don't chase balance. Look for harmony. Don't try to balance life, look for harmony. Because I was killing myself trying to balance everything out in this idea, reading in several different books of like balancing work, life, being the best father, being I'm gonna fail. I'm gonna have to stay up late. I'm gonna have to prioritize this at night so I don't miss out dinner. But harmony. If I'm willing to stay up and burn the midnight oil for this project, well, you best believe that I got to take a couple days to get back in sync and get back to a good sleep plan. Because if my heart gives out, if I run myself into a heart attack, then who's here to take care of my family? Who's here for to raise my daughter? That's right. There's only one of me. So if I can't prioritize my health and find ways to bring harmony into my life, then I'm gonna fail the mission. So number one goal is not to fail the mission. Yeah. So find harmony.

SPEAKER_00:

I that I'm I'm gonna be stealing that one.

unknown:

Find balance.

SPEAKER_00:

Don't seek, don't taste balance, seek harmony. Yeah. Because you're you're you're a hundred percent right, man. I mean, same thing. I'm trying to balance it all. I'm realizing that this is really resonated with me because I'm like, to your point, well, I don't want to miss dinner, so I'm gonna stay up till midnight. Yeah, work out, and I'm trying to be there for my wife, or you know what, I'll take you know, I'll take Will to practice tonight. So you can I mean, yeah. It's just this it becomes this juggling game, which is eventually is unsustainable because you're not gonna ever achieve balance. Yep. So you gotta find the harmony to make it all work together.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. Like tomorrow. Tomorrow, I am going to wake up early. I'm gonna do my gym routine. I know I have to get up at four. That means I gotta go to bed at eight. Yeah. But I'm gonna go to Costco tomorrow with my wife. So that means that I'm gonna have to bust my ass in a really hard, high interval intensity training. So I can go into the office real quick and knock out what I need to walk out, knock out, and then be able to go spend a day with my wife at Costco because we're boring old couple. That's what that's our thrill ride. That's our date. Go to Costco. We can go on double dates. You're speaking our like, but just next, just this previous year, I would say, you know, I can't take a day off in the middle of the week. I gotta do X, Y, and Z. Well, there's will, there's a way. You find it. And and I'm speaking to all you business owners, entrepreneurs, budding entrepreneurs, veteran entrepreneur entrepreneurs, business owners. You're listening, don't start this new year off thinking that you're failing. No, it's a complex job, it's a complex mission. Find your wins, celebrate them, and figure out how to find the harmony, not the balance in this. You can do it. We can all we can all succeed in 2026. Uh uh 100%.

SPEAKER_00:

Because look, I hear it all the time. Oh, you're grinding. If you think of the definition of grinding, that means you're eroding away. Yes. Don't erode yourself into nothing because there'll be nothing left. So don't grind. Find a way to sharpen.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. Yeah. Hell yeah. Well, Rick, I before I let you go, I gotta tap in to see what you what's next, what's coming down the pipeline. You know, there's there's an idea that everybody has to be in every space or marketable in everything. Uh you know, I've what are you guys like pushing for in the new year? And are you gonna branch out in anything else?

SPEAKER_00:

Great questions, Danny. So we what we have coming up in 26 is we've got something special coming out for the 250th birthday of our country. We did one last year for 250th birthday of the Army, the Navy, and the Marines. Uh, so there's that new product will be limited coming out. Oh wow. We we may extend into uh some new markets, but nice. And you know, we're that's a financial decision. If we can get the dollars we are out there, I mean, all just full disclosure, guys, I'm very open book. We're raising money, right? We're in a series A, we're trying to raise money because we've got to get to the next level. So that's the big thing I'm chasing this year, is that is trying to secure that. Um but to dominate our, you know, lack of a better word, dominate the markets we're in, dominate our battle space and go deeper. Yeah, right. We can there are a lot of people, like we're in Florida, we're in seven. Markets Maryland, DC, Virginia, Florida, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Arizona. There's still a ton of people in it in all the markets that don't know four branches. So the goal is the more people that hear about four branches, maybe they get interested. Hope you go buy a bottle for that special occasion. And then that allows us to continue to support those organizations that we need to support. That's the goal. That's what's on the horizon with us, right? Get the go deep. Don't go wide, go deep into the markets. Couple new special releases coming out. We've had a lot of success with what I'll call budding success with unit barrels. Oh, wow. Yeah, we got units. We got units, and you know, people can look me up on off off your website. You're interested, come talk to us. Um, because we we do that for units.

SPEAKER_02:

I might have to reach get you connected to some people. We got a that's uh I got an idea. I won't tell you guys. You'll you'll you'll get briefed about this later on if it goes to fruition. Yeah, this is me and Rick conversation.

SPEAKER_00:

That's GLG9 Clarence. Only if you're the acne corporation.

SPEAKER_02:

Rick, I can't thank you enough for being here today, brother. What you guys are have have built in our and our building is I mean, it's awesome. It's remarkable. I I love the media behind it, I love the marketing behind it. And for you to allow us to to take a peek behind the curtain and see what it's really like. It's easy to stay mysterious, it's easy to say, oh no, we've got it all figured out. We're four branches bourbon. Look, we got RJ jumping out of helicopters, airplanes, making movies. But the reality is that maybe it's years, maybe it's a couple more years before it's so well established that Rick doesn't have to answer his phone in the middle of the night. And RJ can make an entire movie based on this. Exactly. But it's awesome to see the success. It's awesome to see that. And for me as a solo entrepreneur, I love seeing the teamwork. I love seeing brands like yours, guys like Triple Nickel that are out there with an entire ODA. You can literally build something with your teammates and take it to market. And I'll tell you right now, if you're a veteran out there in any space, in any market, people want to see what you have. People want to rally behind you. They want to support you, they want to buy your stuff. So please don't hold it in. Start writing it out. Start writing out that business plan. Start writing it out on the whiteboard. I don't care how you do it. Some of the coolest stories I've heard are two veterans that came together to build a clothing brand and they first started sketching it out on a napkin. That's fucking phenomenal. Yeah. That is awesome.

SPEAKER_00:

And every veteran out there, guys, you have resources. Reach out to guys like Denny, myself, reach out to your peers that are doing it. I'm happy to tell you what we do. People should understand, audience should. I hope they understand they have a resource within their own networks.

SPEAKER_02:

Yes. Lean into it. Yeah. And here's the fact if you're launching a podcast, I will give you every tool, every resource to shortcut your time from first episode to your 200th. Why? Because your success is my success. I don't see it as a competition. Some people do. That's just kind of fucking weird. I don't. If I make it easier for you to get to 300 episodes, fuck yeah. You win, I win. Because look, for the past 20, well, for some of you guys, 30 years. You've been in the military. You served through one of arguably one of the worst, most just fucking hellacious times in the GWAC. It's very difficult. There's a lot of deployments are year long. I know. 82nd guy. I went through them. And you deserve success. As you're transitioning, as you're getting out of the military, be willing to bet on yourself. And maybe it's not going into the entrepreneurial space. Maybe it's going back to school. Maybe it's going to Voke Rehab and going to a trade school. But be willing to bet on you. Rick, again, thank you so much for being here. Thank you for being on this mission. But one more thing: where can people get a hold of you? Where can they go to purchase this awesome bourbon? And what are your social media links?

SPEAKER_00:

Right on. So thank you, first of all, Denny. So everyone out there go to www.for. You got to spell it out. F-O-U-R-Branches.com. And if you go there, there's a find locally tab. Punch in your zip code, it'll let you know. We are available. If we're not in your state, we're available in 41 states online. We will ship to you through through our third party. So you can get it there. Follow us at forbranches.com on Instagram. We're on Instagram and Facebook and LinkedIn. We haven't hit Twitter or TikTok. That's not our space. You don't need it. You don't need it. You can follow there. I think my Instagram is Rick030295 on Instagram. Thank you. Hit me up there if you guys got questions.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, and Rick, again, thank you so much for being here. Everybody out there, thank you all for tuning in. I greatly appreciate it. Season fucking eight. Thank you guys for supporting the show. Thank you all for being here. But most importantly, thank you for taking care of each other. We'll see y'all next time. Until then, take care. Boom.

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Deny Caballero

Host