We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Raleigh Hughes a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Raleigh , we’re thrilled to have you sharing your thoughts and lessons with our community. So, for folks who are at a stage in their life or career where they are trying to be more resilient, can you share where you get your resilience from?
Growing up I played a lot of sports but my sport starting in high school was golf which taught me numerous lessons and skills, but resilience is definitely one. I played high school golf, went to college on a scholarship to play for a top team in the country and ultimately ended up becoming an All American and decided to turn professional after grad school. Golf is the most humbling and frustrating sports there is, and I had to learn to overcome bad shots, bad rounds, and bad tournaments on a weekly and daily basis. In golf if you have a bad round, you don’t have an option but to come back the next day and try to be better than you were the day before. There are undoubtedly a lot of lows in the game of golf if you choose to play the sport like I did. To play at a competitive level you have to overcome slumps, it happens to everyone…. it’s just part of the game. I attest a lot of skills that I have now to my golfing career and overcoming so much and ultimately playing at a pretty high level, but that didn’t come without some very low moments in my career.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
I’m originally from Keller, Texas and currently still reside in the area and am the Head of Sales for Bendt Distilling Co in Lewisville, Texas. My dad has been in the alcohol industry since he started working and after ending my golf career, I decided to take the same path as him and found myself working for a distributor selling wine. I just passed my 10th anniversary in the industry and have been with Bendt for almost 5 years now. We are a craft distillery based here in North Texas with our focus being on whiskey production and putting out high quality Texas Whiskey. The day to day in this industry is a roller coaster and you get pulled in a lot of different directions and work some very nontraditional hours. In most all craft distilleries and brands, we all wear a lot of hats and do as much as we can to grow the business in any way we can and mine’s no different. My primary focus is day to day sales in the market to restaurants, bars, liquor stores, hotels, and pretty much anyone who can and will buy or likes whiskey. I spend a good amount of time interacting with the online Whiskey Community to drive awareness to the brand, educate them on not just Bendt but Texas Whiskey in general and build a strong community that supports and likes the whiskey we are putting in the bottle. It’s a really exciting time to be in the Texas Whiskey game, 15+ years ago there was only a handful of distilleries and now there’s over 100 across the state…. we started long after Kentucky, but I believe Texas Whiskey is going to make a huge impact on the whiskey community across the country over the next 10, 20, 50 plus years and it’s exciting to be at the beginning stages of that movement.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
Building lasting relationships is really important to me, so I’ve always tried to put the customer first no matter what company I’ve been with or what I was selling at the time. People support people at the end of the day and if you build long term relationships, those people will be much more apt to support you long term. Another skill or maybe falls into knowledge, is doing your research or homework. Whether it’s studying a cocktail menu, looking at shelves, knowing a buyer’s favorite sports team or where they just went on vacation; do your research! You’ll not only sound smarter but it shows you invested the time to do your homework on the situation. Third, be a good teammate. Not one person can do everything and unless you work completely independently, you’ll be involved in some sort of team atmosphere in your career. There are going to be days where you need help with a task or building a report or covering something while you’re on vacation, if you’ve established you can be a good teammate your fellow team members will be there when you truly need it.
Who is your ideal client or what sort of characteristics would make someone an ideal client for you?
Clients in the Alcohol Beverage Industry are all over the spectrum, there’s no one “ideal” client but for me in the space I’m in it’s truly about working with individuals who appreciate craft. There are thousands of brands on the market these days and it’s important for me to work with people who will support and get behind the craft industry and also supporting local. Craft brands take more time and education when converting customers in bars, restaurants or liquor stores so an ideal client for me is someone who is really invested in learning and educating consumers. While the big brands will always have their space, it’s extremely important to have great clients who take the extra effort when they have the chance to sell someone on a new brand, whether it’s mine or not.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://bendtdistillingco.com
- Instagram: @bendtdistillingco @roli_hughes01
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/raleigh-hughes-mba-203ba93a/
Image Credits
Blackall Photography
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