iStill's and Your Evolving Role in the Industry!
Introduction
Our original pay-off, "Distilling made easy", the one we started iStill with, helped us a lot. It has been our north star for over a decade. But as the industry changes, our role in the industry changes. And as our role changes, we feel an ever more urgent need to adapt our behavior. Behavior that is guided by our pay-off, as long as that pay-off is correct.
So allow us to take you on a journey. Our journey, the industry's journey, and - of course - your journey! What has changed and how do we adapt? As the industry is evolving, so should we, which begs the question ... what will iStill's evolving role in the industry be? As it has been doing over the last decade and more, let's allow our pay-off to set the stage and lead the way.
Distilling made easy
"Distilling made easy" was an amazing pay-off, because it touched on everything that was wrong in the industry, as it was, a bit over a decade ago. Then, distilling wasn't easy at all. It wasn't easy to learn about distilling, it wasn't easy to start a craft distillery. Equipment was outdated, difficult to control, and very expensive. A 500 liter traditional copper plated still would easily set you back 200k.
Knowledge was unavailable and training unaffordable. If you wanted to become a distiller you needed to invest the better part of a decade, working for an already existing distillery. Information availability? Information was monopolized by half-arsed consultants and tradeshows, that sucked you dry for any question you had.
How do you make distilling easier, in such an environment? Our pay-off led the way. It taught us that iStill needed to be about developing new, modern equipment, that was both easier to control and less expensive to run. It is fair to say that we succeeded in developing this much-needed new technology, that is both more modern and very easy to control. Also, our market entry dropped prices for the aforementioned 500 liter traditional copper plated stills from 200k to 100k. iStill's own price for a 500 liter still sits well below that threshold, even though we offer a much better technology.
The state of the industry, a decade back, also made clear to our CEO Odin, that iStill needed to be about sharing knowledge and making training attainable to all that wanted to become craft distillers. To achieve these goals, he set up the iStill Blog and started designing courses and trainings for craft distillers. Today, the iStill Blog is the world's biggest library of distillation information. And it is free and available to all. Today, the iStill Distilling University trains about 200 distillers per year. It offers the best courses and trainings in the industry, as witnessed by the 9.8 score that our students give us.
To tare down the walls of the information monopoly, established by the half-arsed fools that call themselves consultants and their "let's sell you a bunch of shit you don't need" tradeshows, Odin went on a personal crusade. He showed the industry that sharing information was the way forward. He called out and tried to correct all the wrongs that he saw and that distillers encountered. We even organized a Craft Distillers Seminar to help provide better, less-warped information and experiences to y'all.
The state of the industry
A lot has changed over the last decade. Not only were iStills efforts largely successful, but the craft distilling industry itself has changed and grown. Yes, our new distilling technology offers a new norm, a new equipment standard. Yes, our courses and trainings and articles have made so many of you much better distillers. Yes, Odin's crusade has had some affect at least. Most of you now know where to source information and with what bias it comes.
But the industry itself has changed too. Partially due to our presence, partially because that is what industries do. They start out, in a way, as newborns. They grow into childhood, where nurture, support and guidance are needed. There is - in any industry - always that period of turmoil, when things unravel, become unpredictable, unpleasant even. That market shake-out that puts fear in the minds, because everything changes, including our belief systems. Growing pains? Industry adolescence, that's what it is. After that? Maturity. The adult understanding that it is your responsibility to tend your garden, to guide your industry forward by providing the much needed nurture, support, and guidance yourself.
Looking back
Looking back, the craft distilling industry certainly was in its early childhood, when iStill started out on its quest. Looking back, we hope that we helped the craft distilling industry by nurturing it, supporting it, and even by guiding it.
As the industry grew, it entered its adolescence phase. If you believe it was Covid and the Russo-Ukrainian war that did it, yes, you are right. It shook things up for sure - our views, our expectations, our industry's belief systems - as crises inevitably always do. It taught us all, that we needed to grow up if we were to survive those challenges.
And isn't that where we are right now? As adults with two paths ahead of us? The first one is based on denial. It is based on thinking that our childhood years were the best and that they will come back. Denying today's socio-economic reality by believing, expecting even, that things will go back to "normal", negates what all longterm entrepreneurs can tell you: the crises are what defines your industry and the way you handle them defines if you are going to be a successful entrepreneur or not.
The second way therefore is about acceptance. The acceptance that shit is always going to happen and that you need to simply deal with it. You, as an adult, are not defined by what made you fall or fail, but by you picking yourself up, redefining what you have to offer, and going at it once more: full charge ahead! In an adult world you are responsible and nobody else is. In an adult role, you are the one that no longer begs for nurture, support, and guidance. No, it is the adult's responsibility, your responsibility, to provide those, instead!
Times they are a-changin'
As the craft distilling industry settles into a new pace and place, it is nearing adulthood. Your future, your responsibility. But where does that leave us? What does it mean for iStill's role and for Odin's role? Here are few simple, logical, yet impactful things that we need to share on those two topics ...
It is no longer iStill's responsibility to nurture craft distillers, to support you to the max, and to guide the industry. We'll open up the online iStill Craft Distillers Course to everyone. Please see what you can do with it, as it is no longer our role to guide. Also, expect the iStill Blog to post less frequently. No decisions have been made yet, but we foresee a future where there will be one post per week, instead of three to four, and one Distillers Weekly per month, instead of one per week. Hmmm ... we might need to change the name of our eNewsletter.
Support? As the industry grows into maturity, you don't need support anymore. Children need support, adults provide it. And when adults do need support, well, they pay for it. Just like you pay for your accountant or your distributor. It is no longer up to us to invest in all kinds of free support systems. It never has been our responsibility, even though we made it our responsibility. Frankly, it is the industry's, or at minimum your own responsibility now. You need to figure things out, and if you need our time and energy, be informed that it comes at a cost. We are a business partner, not a business parent.
Guidance? Odin has made it his quest to go to war with any and each of the profiteers that swamped our industry. Sorry, your industry. He worked countless hours on reorganizing the flow of information, on building new networks, and on providing a safe haven to all those that favored progress over stagnation. In an adult industry, with responsibilities distributed correctly, you are your own man, your own leader. An adult world needs you as its safe-keeper, not Odin. Put differently: in a world where safekeeping is externalized, will we see maximum amounts of adult, responsible, nurturing, supporting, and guiding behavior? We do not think so. The partners that do so, the customers that make that difference, are hugely cherished, and even to be admired. But they are few and far between.
Distilling made perfect
Q: "Odin, why does iStill do the things it does?"
A: "Craft distilled spirits are more interesting than Big Alcohol's products. Therefore iStill helps craft distillers challenge Big Alcohol's dominant position.
Q: "How does iStill do that?"
A: "By out-of-the-box thinking, iStill designs beautiful, high-tech, and revolutionary distillation equipment. Our technology helps craft distillers produce better quality spirits in a more efficient manner."
Q: "So what does iStill do?"
A: "We simply design and manufacture the best distillation equipment in the world."
Addendum
It is no longer our task to make your lives easy. It is our responsibility to make perfect distillation equipment. As of today we are changing our pay-off from "Distilling made easy" to "Distilling made perfect". Please be informed that our new pay-off is our north star and guideline in how we do business.
Paraphrasing Bob Dylan: " Things they are a-changin". How? Well, over the last decade the craft distilling industry grew up. You, the craft distillers, need to adapt to that and we need to adapt to that too. So take control. Put one foot in front of the other and start walking, running. Set off into the distance, charge towards that future of your own making. With ever bigger strides, run forwards faster than you ever did before and don't look back, because there is nothing to hold you back.
But if you do slow down and do look back, every now and then, maybe just to regroup yourself or to take a breath, please know that we'll still be here. We'll always be here. Making you the best distillation equipment the world has to offer.
