Brooke Glover of Swilled Dog: 5 Things You Need to Run a Highly Successful Family Business
An Interview With Jason Hartman
Learn communication and patience. We’ve found that many of the internal issues that have come up in the business have been caused by a basic lack of communication that is fixed with patience and taking the time to listen. At the end of the day, we all love each other very much and want each other to be successful in any area of life.
As a part of our series about 5 Things You Need To Run A Highly Successful Family Business, I had the pleasure of interviewing Brooke Glover, Co-Founder and President of Swilled Dog.
Brooke is the Co-Founder & President of Swilled Dog, a majority female and family-owned operation and the fastest growing craft beverage brand in West Virginia. In 2016, Brooke co-founded Swilled Dog with other family members to handcraft delicious cider, and in 2021, the company expanded operations to include small batch whiskey and ready-to-drink canned cocktails. While juggling motherhood to two young girls and serving as Board Vice President of the American Cider Association and on the steering committee for the WV Agritourism Association, Brooke is responsible for the overall brand experience, designing strategic initiatives, including philanthropic efforts, and running the sales and marketing programs of the company.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
The first time I tried dry cider, my mind was blown. I went for a day trip with my husband, sister-in-law and brother-in-law to a small cidery in neighboring Virginia, and could not believe how much I liked it. I thought, “why can’t I find this on the shelf at my grocery store?” I realized that there was a consumer who was not being served, and therefore a market opportunity. So, we decided to start our company to fill that void.
Can you tell us a bit about your family business and your role in it?
We are a company with a very clear mission: We make delicious beverages that are meant to be enjoyed with friends and family while making a difference in the communities in which we do business. We are committed to giving back to charities and causes that are important to us, and we focus mainly on animal charities. We are distributed in six states and are growing rapidly. I am the President of Swilled Dog — which includes both the cidery and distillery — and am responsible for marketing, sales, strategic planning and direction of the company.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began this career?
A really great story is, prior to having a distributor who would sell for us, we had to sell ourselves. It was my first sales call as we had just launched the business. My husband, father-in-law, mother-in-law, and newborn daughter, Steele, came along. I was breastfeeding, so they would all get out of the truck while I fed her in parking lots in between meetings. Then I’d hand her off to my mother-in-law who stayed in the truck while we went inside to talk to restaurant managers to sell them on the new ciders we were making. We look back on it now and laugh — it was a sleep-deprived adventure, but definitely a family effort! I also had my second daughter around the same time we opened our West Virginia tasting room. We joke that we like make things harder on ourselves.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
We were scheduled to meet with the president of a distributor we hoped to partner with (our first distributor meeting). We had a tight window to meet with him and had to travel a good distance to get to his offices. Right before the meeting, our childcare option fell through, and so I had to take our newborn with us. My husband offered to meet with him so I could stay with the baby since she was still so young. But the guy was amazing and insisted I come and bring her to the meeting. I took her into the meeting in a baby Bjorn and she slept the whole time. It all worked out, we partnered together and still have an amazing relationship with him and his company. I learned that people can be pretty understanding sometimes, and don’t take your baby to a business meeting if you can help it!
Another mistake is how we thought we could self-distribute for a while. That lasted a month.
What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
What separates Swilled Dog from other cider brands is our commitment to giving back. Philanthropy is one of our corporate pillars, and is one of the main reasons we started the business. In addition to donating a portion of our sales each year to animal charities, we have a tap in our West Virginia tasting room that we call “Lucy’s Tap” after our mascot and beloved rescue border collie, Lucy Pickles. We give $1 from every pour from that tap to a different charity every month.
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?
I’m really excited about an apple project I’ve been working on in the state of West Virginia. We make a cider called West Virginia Scrumpy that is 100% produced from donated and foraged apples from around the state. We donate all of the proceeds from the sale of that cider to charity every year. This year, we want to donate an apple tree for every bottle we sell. We want to encourage agriculture production and economic development in the state, and we feel both of these initiatives can be accomplished by encouraging farmers to grow high-demand apples and sell them to cider makers across the country. This will showcase WV’s ability to grow great apples.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
My husband, Brad. He is the guy day in and day out that encourages me in anything I want to do. He is extremely supportive, but also pushes me when he knows I need it. He was really the first person who recognized the entrepreneur in me and pushed me to pursue my passion. In addition, the “family” part of the business consists of my husband’s parents, sisters and their husbands. Except for myself and my father-in-law, Barry (our head cidermaker and distiller), everyone else has full time jobs outside of the company, so Brad keeping us all together is a key component for us.
How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?
Apart from making delicious beverages, Swilled Dog is passionately committed to giving back. At least one percent of all sales proceeds goes to our favorite animal charities, so the more we sell, the more money we can give to animals. Last year, it was closer to two percent, and we’d like to see that amount continue to grow as our business develops. We also try to encourage our followers to spend time with friends and family while enjoying our whiskeys, bourbons and ciders. We are in a business that is supposed to be fun, so we try to always keep that top of mind.
Ok thank you for that. Let’s now pivot to the main parts of our interview. How do you define a family business? How is a family business different from a regular business?
For me, a family business is different in that you are working with people who, at the end of the day, will still be there no matter what happens in the business. You have to make sure you are comfortable having uncomfortable conversations and practicing kindness. Although those things are important in any business, you have to realize that personal issues can come into the business, so trying to keep the two separate is very important.
In your opinion or experience, what are the unique advantages that family owned businesses have?
Family owned businesses, such as Swilled Dog, have a background of trust and love that carries over into the business. I know I can trust these people before we even start our day, so we don’t have to take time to build a team like you normally would in traditional work environments.
What are the unique drawbacks or blindspots that family owned businesses have?
Family owned businesses are as different as the families that run them, but personally, I know we struggle with taking time for ourselves. Particularly when you are just starting out, you want to say yes to everything. But we have learned collectively when to stop and spend time together as a family and not talk about Swilled Dog. You also need to make a constant effort to ensure that workplace conflicts don’t follow you home.
What are some of the common mistakes you have seen family businesses make? What would you recommend to avoid those errors?
I think trying to find positions for family members when they don’t have the skillset, interest or time is an issue I see come up in a lot of family businesses. My suggestion is to be honest with each other and yourself.
What advice would you give to other CEOs or founders of family businesses to help their employees to thrive?
Out of all the assets a company might have, its people are, by far, the greatest asset. It is critical that leaders of family businesses make sure that all employees –family or not — feel valued and know that and that their feedback (good or bad) is important and welcomed. It is also important to check in often to ask them what they need to be successful in their position and do your best to give them the tools.
How do you define “Leadership”? Can you explain what you mean with a story or example?
For me, leadership can be defined as getting a group of people to see the vision and to work together to carry out that vision. I also think it is inspiring by example, I wouldn’t ask someone on our team to do something that I, myself, wouldn’t be willing to do. Our team needs to know that I have their back and I am right there beside them, working hard every day.
Here is our main question. What are the “5 Things You Need To Run A Highly Successful Family Business”? Please share a story or example for each.
- Have clearly defined roles and expectations. When we got this ironed out, the whole business changed and became so much easier on everyone.
- Be able to compartmentalize. Leave personal at home and business at work. It is sometimes hard to do, but I think it is important to set boundaries and not take things personally.
- Maintain a growth mindset. Mistakes will happen, so fail and fail fast. Take every failure as an opportunity for improvement.
- Build an attitude of positivity. A collective mindset of “we can do this” will get you through many, many challenges the company will inevitably face.
- Learn communication and patience. We’ve found that many of the internal issues that have come up in the business have been caused by a basic lack of communication that is fixed with patience and taking the time to listen. At the end of the day, we all love each other very much and want each other to be successful in any area of life.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
“Dreams Only Work if You Do.” This quote has been relevant to me because it reminds me to keep going and stay positive, even during tough times. I try to always have a growth mindset that focuses on perseverance and continuous improvement instead of a fixed mindset which is incredibly limiting. This positive mindset supports every area of my life: health, relationships, and business.
We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them :-)
The Rock seems like he would be a pretty cool person to speak with about business and branding. He has started his own alcohol company as well (in addition to everything else he does) so it would be fun to compare notes. 😊 Although it seems his company is doing just fine without comparing notes with me.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)
It’s a movement called “Focus”. In this movement, people would focus on the change they can make around them every day and quit worrying about what people they don’t even know are doing on social media and television. Eat and drink with friends, move your body, be kind, enjoy someone’s company outside of a text message- these are radical ideas, I know.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
You can follow us @SwilledDog on social media.
Thank you so much for joining us. This was very inspirational.
