Where did you grow up?
I’m a midwest brat. I was born in Youngstown, Ohio. I lived in Pennsylvania, then back in Ohio, and then into Indiana where I spent most of my childhood. Then I came down to school in Bloomington in 1999 to go to IU.
What did you study/what were you interested in?
I started off with aspirations to do business and maybe political science. Then I took a really great sociology class and I realized that that is what I wanted to do. And so I majored in sociology.
As long as I was in school, I was always doing student government and I really liked that. I said that my major in college was sociology and that’s true, but I feel like extra-curricular activities were where my passion was. That really helped me lead to some really great jobs and certainly some great friends. I did student government and some other organizations which led me to working at IU. That was a great experience and it kept me in Bloomington.
What else do I like? I love to read and I love to watch movies and I’m super happily married and I have two great kids. So all those things plus this business keep me pretty busy.
What were you up to prior to Cardinal Spirits?
I worked at IU for about seven years. Even when I was working at IU I was researching and trying to get the distillery going. There was a little bit of a down-time there where I started a company that had did fundraising for some nonprofits and political candidates. Then I met Adam in 2010, who we both wanted to start distilleries independently and then we came together, we joined forces, much like Voltron or Captain Planet, and started our distillery.
What do you do at Cardinal?
I’m the president of Cardinal and one of the co-founders. I love working at Cardinal because every day there’s fun new challenges. What I enjoy most about working at Cardinal is working with all the employees. It’s amazing how smart and creative everyone is here and how hard-working they are and passionate about building Cardinal. It’s amazing to me. I think that on paper, the Birdhouse reports to me and production reports to me, but since Adam and I are co-founders, we are involved with everything from financial operations and decisions to marketing decisions and branding and opening new markets and distribution. Adam and I are split off a lot of those tasks so that we can focus on particular areas. So I get to mostly focus on production and the Birdhouse as well as the financial operations and the “business” of our business.
What do you do elsewhere?
I love to read and watch movies. I’m super happily married and I have two great kids. So all those things plus this business keep me pretty busy. It’s funny, I don’t know if I really have any hobbies. I like cooking, I like playing with my kids and hanging out with friends, but all those things sound like what a teenager would do, other than the caring for your kids part. I would say that the business has been pretty consuming, so extracurricular activities haven’t been too present in my life as of lately.
Do you have thoughts about Cardinal or life you want to share, yearbook-style?
“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are, right now.” — Teddy Roosevelt.
