Mike Stanfield - Summer Love Vodka / 5th generation manufacturer in Canada ~ Starr Distilling

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SHOW NOTE

0:05  

Everyone, my name is Bryon Howard. I'm a Calgary realtor who has sold an average of a house a week since moving to this great city in 2003. And this is Calgary living. Calgary living, real estate and lifestyle. I'm interviewing Calgary's top performers as it relates to living and lifestyle in our great city. Thanks for tuning in.

0:31  

On today's podcast, I have Mike Stanfield.

0:34  

Mike's a fifth generation manufacturer in Canada.

0:37  

His company start distilling creates alcohol brands

0:42  

such as Summer Love. I first met Mike about 1985, the fall of 1985 when we played rugby and the Katie and dikes for Katie University, Mike was one of those great guys have

0:54  

fast sporty guy with super leadership skills

0:59  

later on like travelled most of our great country and researched where he wanted to land so in 2006 his pregnant wife and he chose Calgary when Mike was done working in the head hunting business with no skills other than the desire to make something, touch something and have it held in his hand, Mike launched Summer Love vodka. I hope you enjoyed this show as much

1:25  

as I enjoyed interviewing my

1:33  

well we have my old friend Mike Stanfield on the line. Mike, thank you so much for joining us on Calgary living real estate and lifestyle. You are my fifth interview. Well,

1:48  

maybe my seventh interview and really enjoying the show. Welcome to the episode. Mike. We are about to have a great conversation.

1:56  

My absolute pleasure. I think this is a great initiative that is underway. So thumbs up, man.

2:02  

Thanks so much, Mike. Mike, why don't you tell our listeners how we met?

2:08  

Do we really want to get into that? Not all the details, but all right. All right. Well, Brian and I went to Acadia University and played rugby together. And, boy, please don't judge us on that, that I think we've both had a few concussions along the way and that's for but down on the windy fields of Acadia University is where Brian and I first met. And we may not have had the best team in the world but we sure had a good time as a lot of time in the envel pub down and wolframalpha we remember quite fondly, right?

2:43  

Absolutely. And like I remember you providing quite a lot of leadership to our team. You and Brad what was Brad's last name? Brad Clark, right? I was thinking,

2:54  

Brad Clark that you're thinking of and he's a he's a neat guy. Brad moved to New Zealand where he's been running a number he's the CEO of a couple of initiatives down there and probably a big All Blacks fan I would think

3:07  

did his interest in love for rugby take them to New Zealand

3:12  

Do you know I don't know what what prompted him to go down there? So I'm guessing I'm guessing like a lot of us you know when you leave University and your young 20s probably grabbed a backpack and ended up down there. I remember he's a pretty good looking guy and so he probably had women chasing them around or something but I don't know for sure. Brad, if you're listening maybe call Brian and let you can you can give them the New Zealand update. Absolutely.

3:39  

So Mike, um, maybe what did I just may started with you is what

3:43  

most strikes you about living in Calgary.

3:47  

So I may jump the gun in your questions, but I moved to Calgary in 2006. And I had been here many times professionally, I've got family here. You know Not unlike yourself, I came out west as a young man. And what I always continue to love about Calgary is the energy the optimism, the can do spirit of people that they know they can dig in their heels and make a difference. I really admire that. I know it's taken a bit of a licking these days, but I know it's still there. And that's probably my first. That's probably my first sort of point of recognition and calibre.

4:26  

That's, that and that's what I'm hearing over and over again, about people and what brought you here you said in 2006, um, was it the economy at the time or family or work

4:38  

kind of a kind of a combo, and it's, so my wife and I took a year off and travelled around the world and just the year before we moved here, and I remember we got back. We were in BC at the time we get back and sort of said, you know, where, where do we go from here, do we? You know, do we go back to Vancouver. Because we had lived there previously, do we go to Calgary to go to Toronto? What have you, right? We're literally having a glass of wine kind of sorting out life. And Calgary one and and honestly, it was part it was a good part economic in that, you know, the business was just exploding at the time and there was opportunities galore. But relative to real estate, a lot of it had to do with real estate. We were just starting a family you know, Vancouver housing was already well out of control Even then, you know, at some point we'll probably circle back and talk about Vancouver. And because I would have never guessed that it were it was going to go on to where it is today. But so it was a cost of Housing and Economic Opportunity. Combined with I already knew though I hadn't lived here that that heartbeat in Calgary was was there and that that's always appealed to me for sure.

5:57  

Interesting. Um, I have never met Your wife I don't believe I have and where does she come from originally? And where do you come from? Originally I'm thinking New Brunswick.

6:08  

Not far off. I grew up in darkness Nova Scotia, right? Remember, I knew that if you're not in Nova Scotia, I usually say Halifax is because people aren't necessarily certain more that is but it's just the other side of the harbour. My wife is from Hamilton Hamilton, Ontario. Her name is Lee Stanfield. And so we're both both Easterners of a sort. And we both been out west or whole adult lives.

6:37  

Until that sounds interesting, you've travelled the world. And then you came to Calgary what month of 2006. I'm curious.

6:44  

Yeah, no problem. I'll tell you. It's pretty good story, especially on the real estate side. Yes. And I jumped ahead and tell the story. So please, yes, I decided we decided we're moving here. So my my brother lives here and as his family they live down to Lake Bonneville So I came in and stayed with my brother. They weren't in like bonavista at that time but that's where they live today but I stayed with them and we knew we were moving here so this was gonna I'm gonna say it was approximately early April and I already had a job lined up that it was coming to work and I was coming to work there on May the first so my mission I flew in for weekend to buy a house and the so so I arrived get off the plane went to his house. Next day I get out with the realtor that I was working with at that point of time. And I can't remember how I had been introduced to Chris but good guy, also a REMAX guy. And literally Ryan there were six houses for sale in Calgary that day, like I have that wrong, but I strongly maybe it was just six in the south, more six in the, you know within the constraints of what we're looking for, but there were some Six houses for sale. So yeah, we found one that was, it was to my liking and this guy's like Mike like, I gotta tell you, like, you know, it will use a good maritime expression, you know shit or get off the pot here. Anyway, we put an offer was accepted. I owned a home before I got back on the plane and

8:21  

how much over list price and was there any conditions that day in April?

8:27  

There were they just

8:29  

they accepted?

8:31  

Yeah, you know, the pretty straightforward conditions. I think we had a home inspection and I don't recall if we had conditional financing at the time I don't really recall but was a pretty straightforward, you know, there were really no challenges physically with the house. Whatever conditions may have been on it were satisfied quite easily. And so we owned a home and so we took possession on that home June. The first and And then my wife and my now very young daughter came along to join me in Calgary and we've been here ever since. So we have we've lived in a couple different homes along the way.

9:12  

That's terrific. It was interesting to me to hear the sort of the month that you came to Calgary and bought that house with possession June 1, because I remember in 2006, May of 2006 in particular, when our real estate values were going up $1,000 a day in Calgary was a giddy giddy time. It really

9:31  

was. I remember that vividly.

9:35  

You know, and there's there's sweet and sour to all that, but I think everybody listening remembers 2006 and, you know, probably as far as up into 2008, late 2008, and kind of frosty over like that for a long time. Yeah.

9:50  

Interesting. Very good. And

9:52  

so what is that?

9:54  

Well, I guess, you tell us a little bit about what you love most about Calgary. Just I think kind of ending with Do you know positive attitude? What is it that you don't like about Calgary?

10:06  

Well winter goes on a little longer than I care for Yeah, you know I think to be fair, I remember in the Maritimes really summer and you remember I think you repeat yeah guy but you remember summer really didn't start until late June kind of thing and it you know it's about the same here that's not that much different but yeah you know the winter the winter blues can get me down a little bit but so there's there's that. Let's not beat on that one because anybody can come up without one. And you know, struggling.

10:39  

Did you realise I actually just read it today and Richard White's blog that apparently we have 333 days of sunshine per year in Calgary. Did you know that?

10:50  

You know, I didn't know that. Specifically, you hear these sunshine figures from time to time. And that is really a plus is a footnote. I lived in Vancouver for about 12 or 13 years and then rains like the dickens there. But you know, sunshine wise I'd like to see the numbers between Halifax and Vancouver I better not much different Halifax is a pretty great place to So, look, I know a lot of you know, the true prairie folks don't care for Vancouver much because of that grey. I have to say it never really bugged me much. So I'm guessing Vancouver and Halifax are probably similar in sunshine. Yeah, yeah. A nice sunny day. Nobody's ever complained about a nice day outdoors here, right? It's

11:32  

always seems to me since moving here in 2003 that we have less of those sunny days. It seems like the weather has changed. And you know, I remember those sort of cold but dry winters that we had, you know, in the mid 2000s, for example, that I don't think they're quite as cold and dry and like There seems to be a little bit moisture. Have you noticed that sort of East Coast, terrible Grizzly days like that? I mean, they come in Calgary now.

12:00  

You know, I don't think I've got enough of a yardstick to measure by but I do remember that our first winter here, so 2006 going into 2007 it was so mild. It was a very gentle winter. And I remember my wife and I looking at other ones, that's it. Was that that bad? Like, I don't know what people are talking about.

12:21  

I think the year after was just horrid.

12:24  

But there's certainly been, you know, they all seem to take on a life of their own. I think my memory is probably we seem to have about four weeks of ungodly cold through the winter. The rest of it's not so bad, but those four weeks when you get into the, you know, the windy and minus teens and minus 20 is our good lord. Good advertisement for Hawaii, I think. Yes,

12:51  

Mike, I wanted to reach out nerves. Speak to you a little bit about well, getting into what you're doing today, but before that, I'd like to elect you to maybe talk to me a little bit about how the boom bust economy of Calgary may or may not affect you. And also, I'd like you to tie that in to some of your real estate decisions that you've made. And actually, I'm curious, I don't know for sure we've had this discussion. I don't know if you're still in the same house as your first house in 2006. Or not. Maybe you can bring in weave in a little bit of a story here.

13:30  

Yeah, you bet all. I'm a Rambler. So you know, if I, if I get off topic, remind me but, you know, first off your question was the boom bust nature of Calgary? That that's a frustrating thing to everybody. I mean, there's nobody on earth that that doesn't impact and I'm not alone in that. When I first came to Calgary, I was in the professional recruitment business. I worked for a group called David Allen recruiting which is a fantastic organisation. run by David out London and his son Jeff has taken over in the in the interim. And then that business is truly reflected in the boom bust you know, in the busy years that that place was just hopping and optimistic and people were grateful and when it slowed down boy it was the exact opposite of that. So I certainly felt at you know, I remember the days in Calgary, I was shocked when I moved here people go to lunch at 1130 in the morning back in 2006. Mostly because you couldn't get in anywhere so it was like a competition to go 15 minutes earlier than everybody else. You know, obviously good contrast that today where it's the extreme opposite, not an awful lot of restaurant tours and people that are there to entertain us have have gone under and this very difficult last couple of years. So you know that that I have felt this thing of that, as everybody has. Housing wise we we moved to we saw and we first moved here in 2006. Give me a bit of insight into this. My my brother who's a Suncor guy commuted back and forth on train and he said geez Mike, if you're going to work downtown you, you'd want to go on the train. It's just the easiest way to get back and forth. So he said, you want to live somewhere reasonably close to the train line. Right there literally bought the first house, the closest house to the train and it could, it was about 300 yards from the one of the train stations and it was a fabulous way to get back and forth. So that was that was great. Couple of years later, my wife and I were sort of suffering what I will call a bit of suburban blues. And that you know, we pulled into your pulled into your garage at night, your life was kind of inside and if you went out was to sort of a big box shopping strip type of thing and you know, I can't put my finger on this. Surely one thing, but Lee came home one day, this would have been late 2009 and said, Hey, I looked at our new house today. Let's let's go look at it. This was completely out of the blue. And so she brought me down must have been, you know, probably the next day, I'm guessing and we bought a house in the beltline. So we live on 13th Avenue and in the beltline, not far for the two old sandstone schools are the one of them's the CBE headquarters. The other one's called cannot school. So allegedly, we're the first family to buy standalone single house in the beltline in 35 years. I can't I can't prove that but I know that most of the standalone homes that are here are commercial zone commercially. So you know they might have a law firm or a financial firm or what have you in it, but we bought a we bought a single family home 1910 home It's gorgeous. Has stained glass throughout the original wood, the original carvings. squeaks like a demon when you walk up the stairs, that's for sure. But it's just, it's a beautiful place and we've we've touched it up, done a little bit of renovation work and it's been an absolutely fabulous place for us to live. So beltline would get a checkmark, very high for the walkability score. So that's true like I our second car. If it exploded tomorrow, we would never use it again. It's I think, I don't even think we put 5000 k on it last year. We walk everywhere. Lee works downtown. I host all of my meetings in the downtown area. The kids still both walk to school. It's it's been absolutely fantastic.

17:45  

Well, that is that is neat.

17:48  

Now now Oh, hold on a sec. So to come full circle. So the house we bought in 2006. There were six houses left in the market. Yeah, we bought this house in December. 2009 where it kind of felt like today out there, like, you know exactly, yeah, 2019 is good, like it's been longer. This whole recession and cut back has been longer and much more dreary. But I gotta tell you in 2009 that was the tail end of the financial crisis globally. And at ram stack the business, the oil business here and in Alberta. So 2009 was pretty sleepy and there were countless homes like it was, you know, the home we bought, I think had been on the market for the better part of the year at that point in time. So there were risks. You know, it was the opposite of what we saw in 2006. And did you effort to purchase your belt line home did you have to sell your your other home into your first home? We did sell the home I can't remember. I think we had some bridge financing for a month or two wallet. You know, I don't think it was conditional on it, but we were able to sell it quite easily. I think a lot to do honestly because of the location beside the train line. We were by I think it's Fish Creek look home sort of fit, you know, we're just on the south side of Fish Creek. Nice and it was a very convenient type of house from getting places on the train point of view so it sold pretty easily

19:22  

Did you lose money on that house?

19:25  

We did not. I don't think we made a heap of money either but we were above your above water above the timeline when we get out of there. And I think honestly, it's just good timing i think i think things really softened up the following spring where if I'm guessing and I am there you know, there's probably a lot more properties came on the market and probably the supply and demand really got wacky that spring.

19:54  

Interesting. So I'm and I'm just I'm pretending to be very nice. all about timing and stats and stuff. So my thoughts is if you were able to sell your house sort of roughly, maybe fall of 2009, or early 2010, down and South there, then and make money. You bought it just before things went really Nuts in May of 2006 or June, July, and things just went up and up and up and up. So you're just like on the cusp of,

20:26  

yeah, we win. Yeah, we're kind of on either edge of a wave there.

20:30  

Yeah. You're at the front end of that wave. Yes. Because I

20:34  

remember December 2005 is kind of in my memory and recollection is when it started to, you know, ramp up. When I was thinking as a realtor at the time, I was thinking about, how do I get into oil and gas like I need to get into this real estate business?

20:49  

Oh my god. Everybody was right. Who doesn't want eight weeks of holiday and 1000 layers of bonuses and all the rest. We were all pretty green with envy on the toilet. Gas crowd for sure. Yeah, right. I got I gotta share another story about this old house of ours and this is fate would have it. There's a there was a golf course in that community. I think it was called Sean Meadows or something like that. I can't remember

21:18  

Honey bees. Shaughnessy? Is it showing us the meadows. I, you know, may have been

21:22  

I can't remember. However, the golf course failed as an entity here. You know, whoever the company running at the golf course failed. It was not a municipal golf course. So basically the land sat there right unused. And a developer bought that land and became a very contentious issue because it was the you know, a zone to be Parkland or whatever the zoning is for golf courses, right. And the developer had to get a change to develop the land and it became an absolute war down in that area. Because you know, the people that had bought to live on a golf course, didn't want to not live on the golf course. Subsequently the citizens of that community lost that that battle and the property is currently under development. Anyway, we we we knew nothing about this at the time and so we I think we definitely dodged a bullet because the folks that live down there I've had quite a battle over this development and you know, live beside a quite a sizable construction site at the same time too. So I say that because it's guts real estate intrigues. All right. I'll share that for you.

22:31  

That's a that's let's actually contribute that not because you're lucky but because you're really smart. Right, Mike? I'll take what I can get smart but no, no, I really, really good story along the way for sure. No, absolutely. It's I appreciate you sharing that. And part of my you know, mission in this podcast is just to share, you know, these sort of lifestyle and real estate stories and sometimes We, you know, and as I interview people, you know, everyone has a real estate story. And some people have been like extremely lucky and some have been extremely unlucky. And we all try to put an angle on it. And especially well, that we were smart. We saw it all coming, actually. And I'm curious about now getting into what you're doing now. And actually your work in the recruitment. Were you seeing are you seeing working in recruitment? What I feel like is in oil and gas, they may start to experience a slide or a drop or slow down and then we in real estate see at when, like probably a year later, so they're ahead of us in terms of a curb or what's what's happening in terms of your profession and in recruitment at the time. Like would you have seen when when are you affected? I guess probably a lot sooner than what when we see like we probably see a

23:58  

Yeah, okay. Let me let me talk through that in a couple ways because I don't I don't know if there's a single answer but you know, Calgary certainly was attracting people from everywhere you know, during during that time right up to till 2008 people were you know immigrating to Canada internationally you probably know many people that that you know, fit this this image that you know, maybe the husband came from an international EPC type of environment, engineering procurement construction and you know, probably were on some type of visa to work in Canada or a you know, type of temporary permit or something like that. And then the family would follows a lot of people moved here internationally a lot of very talented people. And, and certainly a lot of people move from across Canada or, you know, if they're expat Canadians, maybe they're down in the States. So, people were coming from every direction to Calgary. So, there were a lot of really good candidates coming to the market at a time where the market was quite Hungry for them. So we're certainly, you know, increased activity and just about any metric you could imagine and that time very Curiously, you know, I even breed that people are still coming to Calgary, even in this this downturn.

25:16  

Oh, yeah. We're having a you. Currently we have more in migration then than outmigration by I think I just read this morning, like 2000 people in the past maybe 12 months, was in migration.

25:28  

Yeah, I'm in wasn't there. Were there like a year or two that that was not the case. It was sort of net migration outward for? Yes. I don't know which years but I think some of those years but, you know, it's curious that Rob was doing that. You know, it's not a job rich environment, but people continue to, to come here. So that's, that's an interesting one. Back to your question. I don't know if that answers it. You know, people are always searching for opportunities. opportunities everywhere, right there. You know, just as there are people looking to hear a lot of people that are well employed here often looking to move elsewhere, internationally or, you know, if they're from other parts of Canada, depending on where they are in their life cycle, maybe they're looking to take a young family back to where they're from or something to that and to that end, so there's there's always, there's always movement and in that market, but to be sure the recruiting market is driven by you just probably a similar dynamic and real estate, who you work for, as a recruiter, you're working for a company that is that has hired you to go find people that necessitates knowing a lot of candidates and knowing specific niche pools of candidates and where they are, but it's really driven by open jobs or demand for people. So that has, obviously, I remember vividly the company I worked for in September 2008. We had our highest revenue of all time for recruiting fees.

27:04  

And October, it was our lowest.

27:09  

And I think for the next six months, it will be really, really horrible. I'm guessing Brian, I think that price of oil went that summer to be 150 bucks. Right? And then I think come October it was well on its way down and I think in January bottomed out around 20 bucks 30 bucks. So, I mean, this this was this was the economy having a heart attack, right, like this was severe. And, and, and sudden and and it literally went from one extreme to the other overnight. And the the, the recruiting business can be like that, and there's been a number of those sort of, she was my same analogy. If it was a heart monitor in the hospital, there's been a lot of blips, right, you know, in the last sold 10 or 11. Yours has been a very Blippi kind of environment and in Calgary writes two good years and a bad one. You know, another good one and another bad one, that kind of thing. Yeah, you're very clearly the last few. The last two in particular. I'm not in that business any any longer. But I talked to my colleagues that are still in that business. And really, it's been, it's night and day.

28:25  

Let's get into the more interesting and more interesting work of Mike stanfill. Today. Like we met, I think, critical is it like I want to say it was like, four months ago, but it could have been four years or three. while ago when you were starting up in the distillery business. Let us

28:45  

take us

28:46  

when did that start? And how's it going? And what is it that you're doing today?

28:50  

Yes, very good. So, you know, I always joke around a little bit, what's a good maritime boy with no skills to do go out and start making booze that's that's the right thing. Do me I just but we're that started is you and I see each other from time to time I think we did see each other a couple of months ago. But this is Believe it or not, we're three and a half years into this, that we've had our infused vodkas on the shelf so that the company is star distilling. And we have a product called Summer Love vodka, which is three fruit infused flavours that are on the shelves in both stores and in Calgary. And we've had a really fun run at this and the business continues to grow sort of 50% plus a year, which is a very fun thing to say, in context of what you and I were just talking about, of the lousy business environment here the last couple of years. So we really, you know, we and I say we it's really my wife and I are partners in this business. So it's really my quote unquote day job, if you will, Lee is Lee has broad shoulders and can be can use to earn a living life while I invest all of our money in this venture. If you were standing beside me, I would probably get punched in the shoulder right about now but, but but we'll leave that one alone and right. Anybody runs their own business, you included knows the ups and downs of entrepreneurship. Anyway, so we started this. And so the reason so I was in the recruiting business for a long time. And this is very Calgary related I, you know, the, the up and down nature of it would drive people nuts. And, and I always I've always had an itch to kind of get into the making something tangible that you can hold in your hand, see it, touch it, in this case, taste that, etc. So I, I just have a wonderful wife and we were down in Disneyland. 2014 five years ago, and I had taken a job Within the recruiting firm that, you know, a year or two prior to that, that just wasn't really working out for me. It wasn't working out for the company either. And I just told her I said, Look, I'm, I'm so frustrated. I'm, you know, I don't even want to get out of bed and go to this. I'm grumpy all the time. I'm miserable to our kids and in a bad father, bad husband, bad boy, like, all the way around. And I think I reflexively said, you know, I'd like to quit. And she just looked at me in the eyes and said, Well, you know, quit then like, you know, do something, like don't just sit here and bellyache about it if you're if you're going to quit, quit and move on and, and she was very supportive of that. So I literally pulled the trigger on Canada Day of 2014. And I had a wonderful summer with the kids. We rented a little, little cottage Jodan bc on the shoe swap, and it was a lot of fun. So, the booze thing, how did that get started, so I don't know if you know this brand, but I'll tell you a little bit of background but we have a we have a family business called Star manufacturing that goes back to 1861. So I'm the fifth generation to use the star name and business and my day, so 1861 this was in Halifax right up till 2015 my father does or might have been 14 Africa 14 or 15. He, he legally dissolved the business, it did not exist anymore. The plant had closed down around 2000. And he had pension and benefits obligations to the employee base, some of which were, you know, third and fourth generation employee. So he oversaw the pensions and benefits requirements that that you know, for the men and women that work there, and I think that finally got put to rest at about that time and he dissolved the company and I'm The day he dissolved the company I bought it from him for a buck. So I sent him to you I sent him a US dollar in the mail so buck 40 so I it he was like what do you what are you talking about the device I just want I want to buy the name I want to buy the intellectual property I want to buy the history the stories and I just want to buy this thing like I want it so I bought that from him and so from that was born star my version of star so I'm the fifth generation well to take on the the star name and manufacturing in Canada. Obviously the venture with distilling is different than what they did on the east coast where they did some really cool stuff like they actually made hockey skates for 80 years like all the really nh all the early NHL star hockey skates.

33:53  

Of course being a manufacturing plant in in a naval harbour city during World War One and World War Two you You go on a war footing and you make what the Navy asks you so they, you know, there were secretive things that they made in the plan for those two wars. The second world war was all women working there. My dad, my grandfather and father's generation, it was much more industrial components, trains, bridges and you know, heavy foundry components that that type of things, spikes, bolts, specialty, especially the nuts and bolts, that type of thing for large construction, large scale construction, think railways, wars, buildings, etc. So building infrastructure across the country. And then to my day, so well, so we sat down and started star out here. It was at that same time that the, you know, the Alberta government changed some legislation and the same legislation that has prompted the boom and craft brewing. It's the same legislation that governs distilling of spirits or Or the making of beer, or for that matter, wine or me or, you know, any of the, you know, ciders, any of the wonderful things that are popping up at every neighbourhood in the city. So we started down that road and here we are three and a half years later, we've probably in about 200 shelves across Calgary or across Alberta. And, you know, we've been we've been, I will be mosta but we were very successful. We've, I think three times our products have been named the best flavour boxes and in Alberta, and Alberta and should Pat themselves on the back. We have a really, really, we probably have the most outstanding regulatory framework for the spirits business in North America. So it's a really good place to start a brewery, a distillery cider plant what happened like we really have a, we have the only competitive one in Canada by a mile. The rest of them are You know, crown corporations that have more protection built around them than Fort Knox. It's, it's, it's observed. Not unlike a lot of other things we Albertans might complain about, seem to have observed regulatory issues around them. But I'll steer clear of that one. So here we are, we're a few years in and I might my update is I am on the cusp of pulling the trigger to to start our project to build a distillery here in Calgary, wow. Or I should say, Lisa building and, and, you know, build it out that way I will be we will be building from scratch. So we outsource our production today to the only place I could find in 2015. that would that would take us on this decline because we just don't make much and it's down and it's down in Wisconsin. So that's so that's been really, really beneficial for us. But we're looking to to do Join the local the local movement and dig our heels in here and make it a go well, so stay tuned we'll have to talk maybe this time next year and give you an update.

37:10  

Well Part Two I'm looking forward to it already.

37:12  

Yeah. And so

37:14  

that I remember I haven't been following like into a terribly closely on sort of how your marketing but I remember you were having a lot of fun with the sort of the marketing of your it's called Summer Love right summer love bug it is. And,

37:28  

you know, it's been a lot of fun. We do a lot of you know, the large scale events that have been a lot of your listeners have been to whether it's the CO ops Great Escape show, or the Rocky Mountain wine and food show, you know, those kinds of things that are a lot of fun to attend. Taste of Calgary is an outdoor foodie experience kind of down by the riverfront why downtown Calgary. Lots of tastings in stores and restaurants and that kind of thing, but it's a it's a lot of fun, but I got to tell you if you want the recipe of making friends start giving away booze like i i don't i didn't invent that recipe but I tell you it works pretty well.

38:08  

That's great.

38:10  

Awesome. Mike, most recently, I mean, just in the past week or so, you sent me an invite to attend you know, what seemed like a  social like really a sort of promoting event promoting sustainable or interesting entrepreneurs or internet interesting entrepreneurship opportunities. I have you been in the past you know, since starting up Summer Love Have you been involved? Very much in the entrepreneurial community of Calgary and I don't know that that vibe share share a little bit with me on that I really know nothing about sort of I I sense that

38:50  

honestly Brian I, I didn't either and I learned more all the time. I have met a lot of entrepreneurs and in Calgary both in the You know, the beer and spirits, cider business as well as every other business under the sun. You know, small businesses is a major driver of, you know, that optimism and energy that I speak about in the city. And, you know, oil and gas certainly brings a lot of money into our economy. And I think, I think years ago, it used to be a little bit more entrepreneurial today. It strikes me that it's more driven by these enormous companies. You know, that don't fluctuate quite as much in you know, like sense. Some course fortunes go up and down, but they don't disappear. Same with cn, RL and the others. they've bought over the load at the International guys going down a tangent. Stop that Mike. Yeah, I've met a lot of people like that. And, you know, really, I have to confess I didn't, I didn't, I didn't have as good of or as strong of an understanding about the local movement when when we began the business, you know, For four years ago, I say forest because there was a lot of you know, it took a long time to figure out how to get to market you know and how to do all this so we've been in the market for three and a half years but it was a good 18 months before that have head scratching and to be fair, probably what I would call overthinking it, I was way overthinking it. But you know, you The further you get into this stuff, the more you see a really important shift happening for for everybody in our society, but the younger you are, the more prevalent that shift. It's not just environmental, or sensitivity to to environment, it's, you know, you get into understanding how your your food ingredients were grown, what how they get to Calgary, you know, there's just a lot more sensitivity to all those supply chain types of things around the food industry that for you and I at that age didn't exist like that or They're certainly weren't as prevalent, but it's very prevalent. And it gives me a lot of an enormous amount of pride to have have a business that's helping out other small businesses and in the city and buying goods and services from them and, you know, being able to interact with your customers. It's really cool. And, you know, for me personally, I get a lot of pride of doing that. And and, you know, I don't think there's I don't think we can have enough of that, I think you know, we've, we've got to support local we've got to support other Canadian businesses, we've got to get on board with being an innovative nation of doing things and not hoping that the answer is going to come from somewhere else, or or not being afraid to try and so there's as much fun as it is to be in this space and try harder and, and in our case, start this initiative with putting a distillery in Calgary You know, I'm proud of that, but you get as much good faith back the other way from from people looking for that in the community. I think there's, I think it's probably an equal and opposite reaction to globalisation in a way. Like I look at my, my dad's generation with this business, and they got absolutely crushed, you know, crushed by it by first regionalization. And then and then globalisation and right, you know, I'm the first one, I'm a free marketer, I'm the first one to say you gotta remain innovative, and you have to do all those good things and, and perhaps they stopped doing those things. But big, big it just crushed. And so the business doesn't exist there anymore, right? And the three or four generations of people that were employed, and all the good things that came out of that, that that business gone, right, like that's just gone, that's that's not returning there. And so I think particularly the You know, that the younger generation are more in tune with how important that is, even if they can't necessarily say it out loud, I think they just said a gut level understand that you've got to, you've got to have a viable, viable businesses in your community in your country to keep our lifestyle going and improving. You know, Canada has got a lot to offer, but you can only really offer when you're, you're in a position of strength. So so I'm going to say that that local initiative and that local movement, and it's very prevalent in the food and the coffee and you know, restaurants and, and and, you know, visible ownership, visible owners and Calgary, it's hugely important. And, and I'm proud to be moving in that direction with with our initiative even more.

43:52  

That's wonderful. And I think there's a little story there behind star manufacturing from 1861 to you know, that sort of stuff. Slow down or shut down in 2000 and then you know, the total shutdown, that there's got to be an interesting story around like globalisation. And as you mentioned it, that's where maybe that's another podcast

44:12  

you know, what it might be I you know it from, from a macro point of view, throw this out. So, they were really part of what you would call the second industrial revolution which which brought steam and electricity into into plants and plants all over the world looked very similar to what their plan would have been theirs was a water driven plant. So that you know, the electricity was produced from water in a turbine. And pretty simple from today's point of view, you know, you get a lot of belts and, you know, cogs and wheels turning and that's, that's what they built the business on. And that plant wouldn't look much different than any plant in New England or England itself or across Europe or, you know, into And anywhere else in the what we would call the development or the developed world. So that was that was the second industrial revolution and it kind of petered out. Around the turn of, you know, around the when railroads got started, so sort of late 1800s, like, let's say 1875 onwards. And since then we've kind of globalised it was slow. But the last half of it was pretty quick from maybe 1960 on, you know, the advent of Japanese manufacturing. And then obviously, from the 70s on the miracle that has been it been China.

45:40  

You know, I, I,

45:43  

our business and health effects will be no different from 10s of thousands of others where those jobs disappeared overnight, and they're in China today or Vietnam or wherever they are. And so, so now they call it the fourth industrial revolution, which is really Integrating, you know, you might, you might use it. People can Google that on their own, they can figure it out. But the fourth industrial revolution is, is what's currently underway. And, you know, you can read about the fifth one if you're sort of a nerd and into where these directions are going. But it's interesting and and, you know, I mean, I didn't do this as a fool's errand. I did it because I think we can be competitive price wise, I think we have a niche in the market. That's, that's advantageous for us not only to produce some candidate and selling candidate but to be able to sell internationally. I mean, you know, we are in this to win. And I'm, I'm really grateful that we have this top opportunity to do that. I, my dad's generation i don't i don't think they had that many opportunities were he was are certainly, you know, in retrospect, I guess You can go back and pull a rabbit out of a hat. But he didn't perceive that there was a lot of opportunity where he was. I perceive there's loads of opportunity now.

47:09  

Fascinating. Like, why or why not? Are you staying in Calgary?

47:15  

We are staying in Calgary. Despite the winter, if my wife was here, he might vote otherwise. You know what? So we've got two kids. They're 11 and 14, two daughters that are knee deep in schools and friends and sports and activities and all the things they do. We're not disrupting that their kids are here to go to school. we've, we've started this business and intend to grow the business so we're not going anywhere. We would you know, a friend of mine gave me some advice when I moved to Calgary. He said Mike, it's a guy named Paul warming of and he lives on a Vancouver Island today. So my calendar is a great place but you need to leave for two weeks every winter, two separate trips minimum You've got to get out of here and get to somewhere with sunshine and wants to make it through. So good advice. And I think if my wife were here, she would say, we've rarely lived up to that. But that was that was pretty good advice. But no, we're staying good place to build a business and raise kids and I still really like the energy and can do spirit of Calgary. It's it's a compliment to everybody that that hasn't been crushed out in the past decade with all the challenges we face and here in the age of gross misinformation,

48:36  

yes. might come in sort of coming to a bit of a conclusion on our show today. What advice would you give your younger self?

48:45  

start selling booze early?

48:50  

have more fun.

48:53  

A cheeky answer. I so much enjoy doing this. I really wish I had, but you can't go back and change What you did since your podcast is real estate oriented I'm maybe my advice would be to get in the game earlier. Good lord I lived in Whistler for a while I lived in Vancouver for a while. Live in Kelowna for a while like these are in my in laws live in the Okanagan and you know, I've seen what lakefront properties have done there over a generation you know, all of these communities I mentioned, the real estate market is been so buoyant and and it's crazy like I mean that Yeah, me over a 25 year perspective, those would have each of those communities would have been an absolute Grand Slam when from a real estate investment point of view. And Brian, I was oblivious to this I, I rented when I lived in Vancouver, I was a young guy in Whistler so clearly wasn't buying anything then but it wasn't even on my mind. So maybe advice to younger self would have been you know real estate like there's seems to be two ways on earth to to, you know, succeed financially and I don't for a second think there are other ways or other aspects of life that are just as important family and health and whatnot but real estate and and running your own business are the two avenues that anybody that's been financially successful is probably come from one of those two vendors. It's almost invariably one of those two, so I wish I had to pay more attention. I didn't know diddly about real estate. I still really don't. But

50:42  

in retrospect, I should have paid more attention.

50:45  

Nice. I think I hear a kitty cat.

50:47  

Yes, that's my cats a

50:50  

bluebird. Thanks for tuning in. What's your cat's

50:53  

name? Their name is

50:55  

z as in zebra but the kids couldn't pronounce the earlier in life so they call her D do so she's called the do so she is a wonderful cat but she's about 15 now and getting old sheets meals all forget night law. It is the worst. If anybody has solutions please let me know.

51:18  

You can find Mike's contact information in the show notes.

51:22  

Mike, are you social? How can people reach out to you? What are the channels people want to reach out more?

51:29  

Great question. All of our social media for the business is you know at summer love vodka. But surely if somebody just were to Google star distilling or Summer Love, vodka, they won't be able to find us all of our contact information is within within episode find it pretty easily.

51:53  

Mike, this has been fun. I really want to thank you for being a guest on our show. I'm sure our listeners listening They're gonna love this. And I think there's going to be a part two.

52:04  

Well, I've enjoyed this so thank you for having me on. This is number number five or whatever it is and best of luck getting to getting to 100 day I'm probably like everybody else I love listening upon saqqaq maniac dude, I'd love to do it. I listened to the podcast galore and I'm particularly when I get in the car for an hour to by myself. I love them. So well done my man.

52:34  

Yes. Well, thanks again. Mike. Look forward to sharing some summer love vodka with you and, you know,

52:41  

following the journey as you still locally.

52:45  

Yeah, lots of fun.

52:48  

Lots of fun. So we'll catch up again for sure and I'm really happy to be doing this and engaged in this these days and sometimes too much from Brian tell, we'll leave it at that, I guess and I will talk to you later on, but best of luck. Cheers. Thank you, Mike. Okay, bye bye.

53:09  

That's great, Mike. Thank you. So that just about wraps up today's podcast. I think I'll go get myself some summer love vodka. Thanks Mike for all you do, and bringing us a great a yet another great to spirit here in Alberta. If you have thoughts, questions, or suggestions on who should be on Calgary living real estate and lifestyle. I'd love to hear from you. You can find me on social Insta at Calgary underscore living. Or just google me Brian Howard. And of course that's a funny spelling Brian beat her ye o n. Thanks once again for tuning in.

Mike Stanfield is a 5th generation manufacturer in Canada ~ his company, Starr Distilling,  creates alcohol brands such as Summer Love Vodka. Mike moved to Calgary in 2006 and bought one of 6 homes for sale in Calgary that day. 

Catch up with mike here: 

https://www.summerlovevodka.com/

Find Bryon at www.TheHowardTeam.net