Meet Jordan Anderson

We were lucky to catch up with Jordan Anderson recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Jordan, thanks for sharing your insights with our community today. Part of your success, no doubt, is due to your work ethic and so we’d love if you could open up about where you got your work ethic from?

My work ethic was forged in quiet moments where no one was watching and tested in the loud moments when everyone was. From doing push-ups to failure in a circle of screaming hockey coaches to working through COVID while building three businesses after hours, I’ve learned one thing: the work you do when it’s hard is what builds who you are.

I’ve always believed my work ethic is part nature, part nurture. Some of it feels embedded in my DNA. The rest was shaped by the environment I grew up in. I come from a military family. My father was, and still is, in Special Forces. My brother served as a Marine and then became a police officer. My mother, while my father was deployed, worked two jobs and still managed to raise my brother and me with structure, love, and a sense of pride in doing things the right way. Watching her carry so much taught me that showing up, even when it’s hard, is non-negotiable.

As a kid, I found my identity in effort. At a hockey camp in Oklahoma, I wasn’t shooting well and I wasn’t the biggest kid, but I gave everything I had in every drill. On the final day, we ended with push-ups to failure. One by one, everyone dropped out. I kept going. The coaches circled me, yelling, trying to get me to stop. “Do you want to quit?” they asked. I kept saying no. They told me all I had to do to go inside was stop—that everyone had to keep going until I did. I didn’t stop. I pushed until they finally called it. I wasn’t the most skilled, but I outlasted everyone. That moment showed me that grit beats talent when talent doesn’t work.

That mindset carried into every phase of my life. In college, while others were focused on free time and parties, I was building small businesses and learning what it meant to create value. During COVID, I worked full-time in an ed-tech company and noticed the instructors weren’t up to par. On my own time, I started a staffing agency to source better talent and improve the very courses I was producing. I never took time off during the pandemic. I worked late, filled the gaps, and kept raising the bar. I never missed a deadline and drastically improved product quality. I didn’t clock out when my shift ended. I clocked in again for myself.

Later, when I was fired from that job—for saying they didn’t pay me enough to be a seat warmer, as I finished my work above par, helped others, and then left early to rebuild my freelance business—I could have let it define me. Instead, I doubled down. I grew my freelance agency from scratch again, after COVID killed it, into a six-figure business. I helped one client launch and grow from zero to a million-dollar company. Another went from averaging $1,600 a month to over $40,000 per month within six months. I did this while navigating real life—supporting my mom through liver failure and the loss of my brother, grieving my dog and best friend, and standing beside my girlfriend through a cancer diagnosis.

Now I’m building Dulce Oro, a premium Tequila brand I envisioned years ago. We launched in the U.S. just last month, starting in Florida and New Jersey, and we’ve been hitting the ground running—bringing Dulce Oro to the people and redefining when, where, and how Tequila is enjoyed. It has taken long nights, endless challenges, and a deep belief in the vision. But this is the life I chose to build, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

Where do I get my work ethic from? It’s a combination of watching resilience firsthand, proving myself in silence, and choosing every day to show up when it would be easier not to. It’s not something I talk about much because I believe real work ethic doesn’t need to be said. It’s shown.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

Right now, I’m fully focused on building Dulce Oro, a natural honey-infused Reposado Tequila that I like to call the ultimate nightcap. We just launched in the U.S., starting in Florida and New Jersey, and it’s been an incredible journey getting to this point.

Dulce Oro was born from the idea that there was a gap in the spirits world, especially in what people reach for after dinner. Whiskey has long owned the nightcap space, but I believed there was an opportunity for a more elegant, smooth, and modern option. Our premium Tequila is naturally infused with real Mexican honeycomb after again in American white oak bourbon barrels, giving it a peppery, agave forward, and subtly honeyed profile that’s made to be sipped neat or over ice. No mixers needed. No syrups. Just real flavor.

What excites me most is that we’re creating something that hasn’t existed before. Dulce Oro is redefining how, when, and where tequila is consumed. It’s not a shot. It’s a ritual. It’s a sipping spirit made to elevate the moment—whether it’s the end of a great meal, a celebration, or winding down the day. It’s doesn’t have to be hidden in a cocktail but can be used to elevate both classic and bespoke cocktails.

Behind the scenes, this brand has been years in the making. I’ve been hands-on from the start working closely with our distillery in Amatitán, capturing content in the agave fields, refining the infusion process, and building every piece of the brand from scratch. What makes it special isn’t just the flavor, it’s the why behind it. This has been a story of faith, grit, and vision. We’ve bootstrapped this together and are now hitting the streets sharing this product with people, one sip at a time.

We’re currently launching into retail and on-premise locations in both Florida and New Jersey, and we’ll be expanding into new markets soon – including online. We also have tasting events, pop-ups, and a few exciting collaborations on the horizon that I can’t wait to share.

At the end of the day, Dulce Oro is more than just tequila. It’s about crafting an experience. A toast to the finish. The perfect beginning to the end.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

Looking back, the three qualities that have been most impactful in my journey are:

Relentless Work Ethic
From freelancing to building Dulce Oro, nothing has moved forward without consistent effort. It’s about showing up when it’s hard, working through uncertainty, and doing the unglamorous work when no one’s watching.
Advice: Build habits that make you dependable, even to yourself. Start small. Be the person who does what they say they’ll do. The momentum adds up.

Resourcefulness
I’ve worn every hat… creative, operations, fundraising, logistics, sales. Especially in a startup, no one’s going to hand you a playbook. You have to figure it out, ask questions, search for solutions, and stay flexible when the plan changes (because it will).
Advice: Get comfortable learning on the fly. Google, YouTube University, LinkedIn, Instagram, and ChatGPT are amazing tools. So is asking for help. You don’t need to know everything, but you do need to care enough to learn anything.

Emotional Resilience
This journey has had real-life challenges alongside it—losing family members, supporting loved ones through health issues, managing stress and loss while pushing forward. If I didn’t learn how to keep perspective, I would’ve quit.
Advice: Take care of your mindset. Journal. Move your body. Do hard shit and voluntarily push yourself so the involuntary hard shit in life is easier to manage. Learn to breathe through stress and stay grounded in your purpose. Business is personal, but you can’t take everything personally.

No matter what path someone is on, my advice is this: Focus on becoming the kind of person who doesn’t stop. The how will change. The obstacles will come. But if you keep showing up, your path will start to build itself under your feet.

Okay, so before we go, is there anyone you’d like to shoutout for the role they’ve played in helping you develop the essential skills or overcome challenges along the way?

There’s no way I’d be where I am without the people who believed in me before the results ever showed up. First and foremost, my clients have played a massive role in shaping who I am, especially those who gave me their trust early on. After COVID shut down most of my work, Thomas Summers of SummersMethod was the first to take a chance on me. Not only did he believe in what I could do, he introduced me to Chris Barnard of Overtime Athletes just a year later, which led to another long-term opportunity that has sharpened my skills and expanded my impact. Jason Skeldon was another early client who gave me countless chances to grow, helping me develop both technically and socially. From creative production to navigating big opportunities, those experiences helped me evolve on every level. And clients like Hunter Micheletto of Hunt4Shredz and many others, some of whom may never be named here, trusted me to help bring their visions to life. That trust meant everything.

Equally important has been my girlfriend, Natalie Aguilera. She’s been my rock through it all for the past two-plus years. Through the long nights, the pressure, the personal losses, stayed by my side with unwavering support and love.

The truth is, success isn’t a solo journey. It’s built on trust, belief, and love. And I’ve been incredibly fortunate to have people around me who offered all three.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://drinkdulceoro.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drinkdulceoro/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordanvanderson