(bright upbeat music) - [Announcer] This program was made possible by contributions to your PBS station from viewers like you.

Thank you.

(bright upbeat music) (upbeat music) - [Announcer] It's Your Business with Michael Aikens is brought to you by WCTE, PBS and the Center for Rural Innovation with funding by a grant from USDA Rural Development.

This series was produced under an agreement with Tennessee Tech University Center for Rural Innovation.

(upbeat music) - With a treasure trove of resources and a growing economy, many people across the Upper Cumberland are stepping out and taking the plunge, turning their passions into successful businesses.

Come along as we learn about a business started from a product with a checkered past as well as a business dedicated to helping people achieve their goals of a healthier lifestyle.

Let's get started.

(upbeat music) When the Hunt family moved to the Upper Cumberland and attended the Moonshine Daze Festival in Celina, they learned all about the rich history of Moonshine in the area and it sparked an interest that could not be quenched.

They knew from the beginning, that they wanted to start a distillery, and they've now found a home for that distillery in beautiful Gainesboro, Tennessee.

(instrumental music) We're here on the square of beautiful historic Gainesboro, Tennessee with the owners of Roaring River Distillery, Scott and Chad Hunt.

Guys, welcome to the show.

- Thank you.

- Thank you Mike.

- Glad to be here - So first things first, we got so much to get into today but I wanna know what, maybe even more importantly, who is Roaring River Distillery?

- Roaring River Distillery, we're a family owned business here in Gainesboro.

We got interested in the Moonshine when we moved out in the Upper Cumberland here.

We lived in Nashville for 10 years, in Alabama previous before that.

And then once we came up here, everything was about Moonshine.

Had Moonshine Daze in Celina, Tennessee and Clay County there where we live.

And where we bought our property at on one side, they said this was still house hollow they used to make Moonshine in a house and then over here it was muddy hollow and there was operation there.

And we found all these remnants of sites in the woods and stuff where they used to make the Moonshine.

So, it got me really interested in the Moonshine, I started studying on it, I was gonna write a book called "Moonshine in America" and started interviewing people and getting stories from everybody.

And then I wrote a song called "American Moonshine," just from everything I was seeing out there and listening to on TV with the Moonshine shows that are on TV now and listening to what's going on there.

And so I incorporated all that into a song, that is now the theme song for our distillery called "American Moonshine."

- Very cool, so, you know, I find Moonshine very interesting.

You know, you talked about the history of it in our rural region here in the Upper Cumberland.

Can you talk a little bit about what Moonshine really actually means for this region?

- Yeah, when the settlers started coming in here in the early 1800s, a lot of Irish settlers and stuff, you know, they brought alcohol production with them and we've tried to get away from the government control over alcohol then so they moved to the Hills up here where they could make it and it just became a way of life for people here in the hills.

And then, you know, when the economy's bad, you know, poor farmers around here with the rocky soil we have on the Hills, you can't grow that any crops so, you grow a little bit of corn, take it to market, you get a little bit of money, you make it into Moonshine, you get a lot more.

And so everybody here, they said, oh, my grandpa did it, my grandma did it, my aunt and uncle, my brother, sister, you know, everybody was part of the operation.

It was just a family tradition, you know, it was just part of the way of making money and surviving.

- And y'all are carrying that family tradition on to date.

So tell our viewers a little bit about the actual process to make Moonshine.

- With our process, we do it the old traditional way.

We don't use a lot of modern techniques to do it, we do it like I said, the traditional way, we don't use manmade yeast.

We sprout and malt on corn and use it as part of the fermentation process.

Even when it comes down to the actual distilling process, we do it as close to the old fashioned way as possible.

We have a completely copper ground Hawk steel is what I consider it, it's all copper part.

Our operation, we can take it outside of the distiller right down to the creek and run it the exact same way that we can run it inside the building which is unique amongst distilleries.

Most of them are all electronically controlled and computer control.

And ours is a low tech operation like you would find out in the woods.

- So, you know, you're preserving the history.

This is a family operation.

How did you all actually get started?

How did you get into Moonshine and then maybe make it legal?

- Well, like I say, we'd moved to Clay County and started interviewing people.

And one of the people I interviewed was Arnold Hatcher.

He's a local Moonshiner there.

He's well known in Clay County.

And so we became friends and then he wanted to try to go legal.

That was always his dream is try to have a legal distillery.

So it took a five year process of doing all the paperwork with the federal government and all the hoops we had to jump through to finally go legal.

And so we opened an operation up in Clay County with him, you know, as partner and the location was in the back woods on dead end roads so we didn't have that much walk through traffic.

You know, it was harder for people to find but that's where it had been made for all those years.

And so we ended up buying him out and they invited us to come to Jackson County here and put in a location here.

They were wanted a distillery here to draw off traffic.

- So you started out in Clay County, now you're here in Jackson County in Gainesboro, Tennessee, and you're on the historic square.

Why is it so important for you all to one, own a business here but also add to the revitalization of this area?

- Yeah, Gainesboro is such a neat town but like a lot of other towns, you know, it has a lot of empty buildings and we wanna try to revitalize the town and make it like some of these other towns that have businesses in all the buildings and a lot of tourists.

And this building that we are in was actually the old Ford dealership from early 1900s when they had model T's, model A's.

And so we're trying to preserve the history of the building itself and incorporate that in with the business.

- So is clearly important to you all, family is very important.

Can you talk to me a little bit about actually owning a business, running a business, doing Moonshine together as a family?

- And when we looked at businesses to do, you know, you could do a restaurant or any other business and there's a lot of them out there.

And this one here, since, you know, we were the first ones in the area, you know, we've kind of got a market on it right now and we wanted something different, you know, that would stand out.

- So what's your experience been like working with the family as the master distiller?

- Working in a family business has been a really good experience.

It's definitely a huge change from the normal rat race of life.

I come from a big production facility where I was a industrial maintenance tech, programming robots, doing automation, your typical nine to five which ended up being a 12 to 14 hour a day gig.

This was definitely a lot more laid back for being family and all that.

You do have your moments where it's a little stressful can be but nowhere near as having a big corporation hounding down on you at all times to get production out.

At my last job, I was not quite allowed to drink on the job but here's a requirement so that's definitely a lot, a lot better on that part.

- Not only do y'all own a distillery, you have a beautiful retail shop here with all kinds of things that people could in and buy.

Can you tell our viewers a little bit about your shop?

- Sure, we have, of course our product, our alcohol, we also have local craft people that we allow them to bring their product in and display and we sell and, you know, it's just another avenue for them to get their products out there and we wanna help promote, you know, the local folks too.

So we try to use local as much as we can.

And then my wife, she does a lot of the designing on the shirts and different things like that.

- You know, owning a business, there's inherent challenges with that.

Can you tell our viewers a little bit about some of the challenges that you all faced and more importantly, how have y'all solved those?

- The first thing we had to do was Clay County had opted out back in 2009 of having a legal distillery operation, you know, available.

There was a law passed and there was five counties opted out and Clay County was one of them.

So we had to go through the process of getting petition signed, go before the commissioners, get it on the ballot, get it voted on at the next election and then start the process of getting the building set up.

And you basically have to have illegal still operation ready to go before they'll give you a permit to have a legal one.

So, you know, we had to have all that done and it took five years to finally get to point.

- The issues that I seen, of course, were opened in 2020 during the middle of a pandemic so a lot of businesses were shut down, government offices were shut down.

So then we ran into an issue of, we have no glass bottles to put them in because the manufacturers are closed and there's a shortage of them so we had to go here, go there, call these people and locate enough jars and bottles to put our product in so it made a lot of things difficult, just opening during the pandemic.

- Owning a business is constantly a learning process and small business owners can't be experts on everything but luckily in the Upper Cumberland, we have free resources available like the Small Business Development Center, The Center for Rural Innovation at Tennessee Tech.

Have y'all taken advantage of any of those resources.

- Yes, we used Tennessee Tech on a couple items.

First one was getting a website for other location up and going.

We also had a girl that did logos for us and we just had a girl come out and do pictures that were gonna be using on our brochures and promotional literature.

So it's been really helpful to have people come out and it's learning for them and then it's helpful for us 'cause we don't have the expense of hiring, you know, professionals to come out and charge their high prices.

- Well, guys clearly you all are passionate about our rural area, making Moonshine and helping to revitalize our areas.

Thank you so much for being on the show.

- [Scott and Chad] Thank you for having us.

(instrumental music) - When Iva Smith first tried a spin class, she was hooked.

She saw the rewards that exercise gave her, more energy and improved health.

The music motivated her and the darkened room gave her the comfort of people not seeing or judging her as she exercised.

It was a perfect fit and she knew, she wanted to bring that experience to the people of Cookville and the surrounding areas and started Spin City Studio.

(upbeat music) I'm here in Cookville, Tennessee with Iva Smith, owner of Spin City Studio.

Iva, welcome to the show.

- Thank you for having me.

- So let's start out with the basics, what is Spin City Studio?

- So we do indoor cycling classes.

We also offer yoga and hip classes but for the majority it's spin classes.

- So how did you get into all this?

- So I took a spin class and I fell in love because it was in a dark room, loud music and a great workout and so I just fell in love with it.

And from that day forward, I become a spin instructor and I taught for a couple of years at another studio and my love just continued to grow and I thought, man, what an opportunity to share with the Upper Cumberland.

- So how long have you been in business?

- Actually, January 25th was our second birthday.

- So you've been in in two years so that means you probably started out in the middle of COVID.

- Yeah, we were only open for six weeks when COVID hit and then we were closed for eight weeks.

So it was interesting experience to say the least but we survived and we're still here and we're just beyond thankful.

- So you had an interesting start, went through COVID but, you know, life as an entrepreneur, a person that owns a small business, tell us a little bit about what that's been like for you.

- Living off a wing and a prayer is how you survive as a small business because one day you're doing great, the next day you can take four steps back and it fluctuates.

It's not easy.

It's not as pretty as what people let on to be.

You have to love it.

It's not something you just wake up and think, oh, this is great and it's gonna be easy 'cause it's not that easy but it's worth it because I love it.

It's a passion.

I feel like fitness is one of the least medicines that gets utilized when it's the one that should be used the most.

So I find my love for fitness because I was overweight as a child growing up.

I still struggle with it.

I tell everybody every day, I'm a beginner every day.

So every day I wake up, I start over.

So my journey has led to this.

It's a safe place for people to come, no matter what your fitness level is.

And I encourage everybody get up and move, no matter if it's just a walk.

- So I understand in addition to this business, you also work a nine to five job, is that correct?

- Yes, I also work at Quirk and Wheeler Orthodontics.

I've been there for 15 years.

They're my first love.

This is my second love.

And I'm blessed that they are so supportive and gave me their blessing to work around my schedule so I can work there and also run the studio.

It's a lot but I love it.

I wouldn't have it any other way.

And my husband, he plays Mr.

Mom a lot.

He takes care of my five year old better than most women do.

And so sometimes I get a little jealous 'cause he gets to spend a lot more time with her.

But at the end of the day, I'm showing her that anything is possible as long as you're willing to work hard.

- That is a lot to take on.

So you've got work life, you've got entrepreneurial life, you've got mom life.

How do you balance it all?

- Early mornings, 4:00 a.m. wake up calls to get the days started.

I always try to make sure that my home life is situated for my week to begin so on Sundays that's the day I get everything done and we're ready to roll for a new week.

And so my little girl she'll say, "Are you teaching?"

I'll say, "Yes, mom will be home late tonight."

So she loves it.

She loves coming here.

She's five and she tells people she's gonna be a spin instructor when she becomes older.

- So mom is an inspiration too.

- Yeah, yeah.

- Why is it so important for small all business to be here in the upper Cumberland?

- It's very important that people shop local.

As a business owner, I have really opened my eyes to why you should shop local.

Each time you make a purchase from someone local, they literally are doing a happy dance.

When you shop from a big corporate place, you're just another number where if you're shopping local, you are the backbone, you are what is keeping that business staying afloat.

And so every opportunity I get, I try to shop local even if I know it's $10 more, I'm gonna pay $10 more because I know that could be what keeps their door open or closes their door because it's hard for small businesses.

And so it's eye opening when you're a business owner at how hard it actually is to keep the doors open.

- Let's call it back to the very beginning.

When you first started this, what do you know now that you wish you knew then?

- It's not as easy as I thought it was gonna be.

It's a little harder.

- Well, what are some of the challenges that you faced and how did you overcome those?

- Teaching clients to learn to listen to their body.

We have clients that will come in and they just go as hard as they can.

And once they're done, they feel like they're defeated or it's just too hard.

So the hardest part for an instructor is teaching each individual to listen to your own body, go at your own pace and it's not a race.

The beauty behind the bike is it doesn't matter your fitness level or fitness size, it works for everybody because it's adjustable.

It's low impact on your joints.

It's great for people to have hip, back or issues because there's no impact.

So we tell people, if you have issues with joints, stay seated, you'll get the same amount of workout as being out of the saddle.

So the biggest thing is just teaching the client to pay attention and do what works best for them.

- So you started out with spin but I also understand you've been adding a lot of offerings to your business.

Walk us through that.

- Yes, our newest edition is yoga.

Our yoga lady does what's called sound bath healing.

She uses crystal balls.

It sets off different vibrations.

And so it's really healing for the inside.

It's very calming, peaceful.

You bring your pillows and your blanket.

You kinda like you're in a sleepover and you lay in the floor and just relax.

And I think it's something great to offer for this area because I feel like people are just so stressed and they get caught up in today's society like they expect you to be somebody.

And so we try to be somebody that we're not.

And so I think people learning to be themselves, learning to take the noise out of their life and calming is very important to your mental health.

- How do you take the noise and stress us out of your life?

- Right here, this is my getaway.

I work out to relieve stress.

If I feel like I've just got too much on my shoulders after I'm done with the class, I tell all of my clients, thank you for being here tonight because you think you need me but actually I need you.

- What does the future hold for Spin City Studio?

- I hope that we continue to grow and bring some new opportunities.

We are trying to grow at the moment our 8:30 classes for moms, we are offering free childcare.

I think it's important for moms to have a place to be able to bring their children and not be worried.

And so for me, that's something we're are trying to continue to grow on right now is having a place for our moms to be able to work out, take time for themselves and a safe place for their children.

- Well, and you know, as you're growing, obviously it's a balancing act because you've only got a finite amount of time.

How do you balance determining what you would like to do versus what you're actually gonna do?

- I determine a lot off of my daily life basis.

What would I need in life?

How can I help other people grow that I've seen myself grow from, just finding ways to stay encouraged, not get caught up in the world that we live in, all of the negative.

I'm always looking for positive.

When people talk negative, I always turn it around to something positive.

It's our choice if we are gonna be negative or if we're gonna be positive.

And at the end of the day, it's up to us how the ending is gonna end.

- So, you know, we have a lot of small business owners that watch the show.

We also have a lot of people that are thinking about starting a business but they just haven't taken that leap yet.

Maybe they've got that nine to five job or maybe for whatever reason they haven't started it.

What's your best bit of advice for them.

- Don't let fear stop you because you never know if you're gonna make it.

Me and my husband knew going into this, it was a risk but I was like the Lord's gonna guide us and if it's meant to happen, He's gonna follow us through.

And there was a time where we were supposed to sign a lease and the guy backed out the day that we sign the lease.

And my mom's like, are you upset?

And I was like, no, because that's not where God wanted us to be.

And so I just feel like listening to your heart and doing what's right but not being afraid of failure.

The only way to fail is by not trying.

- Iva, this has been a great conversation.

Thank you so much for being on the show.

- Thank you for having me.

(upbeat music) (bright upbeat music) - Hi guys, I am Jess Lewis, the Marketing Director and Program Coordinator over at the Biz Foundry in Cookville.

My job is to help let the community know what our resources are as well as direct the programs that we offer to help entrepreneurs.

The Biz Foundry essentially is an entrepreneur center and a co-working space so we do two different things.

The main thing that we do is help local entrepreneurs grow, start, launch and manage their business.

The other side of what we do is co-working space.

So we have three locations in Cookville, Sparta and McMinnville and we offer for you to work.

Whether you're a business owner, a remote worker, there is open coworking space that's based on membership as well as rental offices and other resources.

So the Biz Foundry, like I said, is an entrepreneur center which, what does that mean?

We offer a variety of services and because we are grant funded, we can offer those services free or at a very affordable price.

So one of the main things that we do is offer mentoring and coaching.

So new or established business owners that need support in starting their business, launching their business can sit down with a coach or a mentor, talk to their problems, talk to their concept and we can help guide them on a path to success.

Another thing we do is offer events, whether that's a networking event, an educational workshop, and variety of topics from accounting to finance, to marketing, to help give entrepreneurs in the community, the access to resources and information they need to succeed.

And then the other thing we do is run a program that we call Startup Your Startup.

And that's kind of our flagship program.

We think of it as kind of like a business bootcamp where we're gonna give you all of the fundamentals you need to build a solid foundation to start your business or if you are already a business owner and make sure that you are kind of doing everything right or you can hone your market and just kind of put things in place that'll take you to the next level.

But essentially the business bootcamp or Startup Your Startup is designed to help you build a solid foundation, launch your business and go from there.

So if you're an entrepreneur or somebody with a business idea, sometimes people don't relate to the idea of what is an entrepreneur.

If you're a business owner, if you have a concept, we can come and help you.

We can help you figure out if your idea is viable, meaning is it worth it to put your time, energy and money into the idea.

It's super important to test your idea or at least talk it through before you go into putting all your effort into it.

And if you are a current entrepreneur, we can help you decide, like out where to go next.

Maybe you're struggling to, you know, hire your first employee.

Maybe you need to scale and open a new location.

Maybe you're need to change pricing.

All these things that as entrepreneurs go through that can be confusing and you feel like you live on an island and you can't find the answers.

We help entrepreneurs of all levels from brand new, have an idea to I'm a couple years in and I need help going to the next level.

We can help you figure out how to get there.

The Biz Foundry is full of people that have been where you have been.

I myself is an entrepreneur, our president and vice president is also entrepreneur and our partners, SPD, CTC are also full of entrepreneurs.

So we've been in the trenches.

We know how you feel.

We've been there too.

We've overcome obstacles.

So we kind of like to tell people that we can walk beside you.

We're not just somebody telling you exactly what to do and we have no clue.

It's all stuff we've learned a book.

We have the experience to help you get where you need to be 'cause we've been there too which I think is really important.

Not that you can't learn stuff in books and at school, those are valuable tools but it's just having somebody that has been in the trenches and has been where you are, it can help you get to where you need to be 'cause they get it in a deeper level.

If you're not sure if the Biz Foundry services are right for you, the first thing is just call us.

Maybe we are, maybe we aren't.

But what we do is free.

You can come in and talk us and see if we have what you need.

The other thing is, I think often entrepreneurs feel like no one understands them, you know, they have to go it alone.

And the reality is to truly be a successful entrepreneur, you need a team, you need a community of support.

So having a resource like the Biz Foundry gives you access to things that in other ways would cost a of money, Business coaching and all of that can be incredibly expensive.

And the fact that we have something here in Cookville that is free and affordable and allows you to feel like you have the support you need to grow is a great resource.

So all you have to do to get started with the Biz Foundry is to go to our website.

And you have two options, you can pick a coach right off the bat that you wanna work with, or you can fill out an intake form and we can kind of look at that and see what coach would be best for you.

If you wanna go the route of heading to one of our events first, just click on the Events tab at the top and see what we have going on.

(bright upbeat music) - Thanks for tuning in to It's Your Business.

For more information on today's topics, please visit the WCTE website.

To learn more about free small business resources and expert assistance, visit the business resource collective website.

Until next time, I'm Michael Aikens.

(bright upbeat music) (upbeat music) (bright upbeat music) - [Announcer] It's Your Business with Michael Aikens is brought to you by WCTE, PBS and the Center for Rural Innovation with funding provided by a grant from USDA Rural Development.

This series was produced under an agreement with Tennessee Tech University Center for Rural Innovation.

(upbeat music) (bright upbeat music) - [Announcer] This program was made possible by contributions to your PBS station from viewers like you.

Thank you.

(bright upbeat music)