Casey Haugen of Crux Cigars Baseball to Golf to Cigars Origin Series Episode 7

Episode Summary

Origin Series Episode 7 sits down with Casey Haugen, operations manager and partner at Crux Cigars, for a wide-ranging conversation about the unlikely path that took him from catcher's gear to the cigar business. Over a Crux Epicure — the brand's first Ecuadorian Connecticut-wrapped blend with Nicaraguan binder and filler, described as mild-to-medium-plus and creamy — Casey walks through his 1984 Minnesota roots, a business degree from St. John's University, and his first professional cigar job working at Tobacco Grove, the Minnesota retail chain owned by his cousin and Crux partner Jeff Haugen.

The bulk of the episode is Casey's baseball story: an undrafted, unrecruited catcher who got a surprise call seven games into a season and ended up playing just over two years of independent minor league ball across three leagues and five teams — Fargo-Moorhead, Winnipeg, Evansville, Shreveport and a "cup of coffee" in Washington, Pennsylvania. He explains the economics honestly ($800 a month to a league-max $1,600, paid only on game days), the brutal roster churn (45-plus teammates in one 22-man-roster season), how independent ball functions as the path for guys on the way up or the way down, and why high-A is famously the hardest league to hit in — all talent, no control. When the calls stopped, he moved to Nevada during a 15% unemployment stretch, took shifts at Calvin Klein to make rent, and within six months was running a retail golf company he grew from under $1 million to over $4 million in three and a half years.

That business experience became his qualification for Crux. While Casey learned operations in Vegas, Jeff Haugen spent roughly three years and 50-plus trips through Central American factories doing a factory-by-factory SWOT analysis and learning to blend, driven in part by Minnesota's punishing 95% tobacco tax. Casey details the 2014 launch: partner and designer Mark's branding work, a single buzz-building cigar seeded to 15–20 retailers ahead of the 2014 IPCPR in Las Vegas, then five more blends at the show. He also breaks down the Crux logo's meaning — crux as crucifixion, constellation, and "the crux of the matter" — and the recurring sword-and-Swarovski-crystal element meant to function like a Nike swoosh.

Lighter turns include a long tangent about the "free" German Shepherd/red-nose pit bull mix that cost him nearly $20,000, the podcast's three standard questions (a cigar with his dad, the college coach he calls his hero; "always ask why"; and his favorite smokes), and a tour of the Miami industry hangout Caribbean Cigars, where he regularly runs into other manufacturers. Casey names the Crux Du Connoisseur No. 3 petit lancero (5 5/8 x 35, medium-bodied Habano with 60% ligero) as his daily smoke, with the HR Corona Signature and RoMa Craft Intemperance BA Intrigue as his favorites outside his own line.

In This Episode

1. 01
   Smoking the Crux Epicure
   Casey introduces Crux's late-2017 release — Ecuadorian Connecticut wrapper over Nicaraguan binder and filler, mild to medium-plus and creamy, the brand's first Connecticut.
2. 02
   Minnesota roots and Tobacco Grove
   How a business degree from St. John's University and a job at cousin Jeff Haugen's Minnesota cigar shops became his professional introduction to tobacco.
3. 03
   Independent minor league baseball
   Two-plus years as a utility catcher across Fargo-Moorhead, Winnipeg, Evansville, Shreveport and Washington, PA, and what the pay, roster churn and talent level were really like.
4. 04
   Forced retirement and the Las Vegas golf business
   Moving to Nevada broke during a 15% unemployment market, working Calvin Klein shifts, then growing a retail golf company from under $1M to over $4M.
5. 05
   How Crux Cigars was built
   Jeff Haugen's 50-plus factory trips and SWOT analysis of Central American factories, Minnesota's 95% tobacco tax, and the decision to become a manufacturer.
6. 06
   The 2014 launch and IPCPR debut
   Seeding one buzz cigar to 15–20 retailers before the 2014 Las Vegas IPCPR, then releasing five blends at the show.
7. 07
   The Crux logo and branding
   Designer Mark's sword-and-crystal emblem, the triple meaning of the word 'crux,' and the goal of a recurring, instantly recognizable mark.
8. 08
   Favorite cigars and the Miami scene
   Why the Du Connoisseur No. 3 is his daily smoke, plus HR Corona Signature, RoMa Craft Intemperance BA, and hanging out at Caribbean Cigars with other manufacturers.

Brands & Cigars Discussed

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Transcript

Every day I'm hustling, hustling, hustling, hustling, hustling, hustling, hustling, hustling, hustling, hustling, hustling. Every day I'm hustling, every day I'm hustling, every day I'm hustling, every day I'm hustling, every day I'm hustling, every day I'm hustling, every day I'm hustling, every day I'm hustling. Welcome to a Cigar Hustlers Podcast, where we take a closer look at the people of the cigar industry, with your host, Mike and Mike. Hustlin', hustlin', hustlin', hustlin', hustlin', hustlin', every day, I'm, every day, I'm, every day, I'm, ho, love.

Hi, I'm Mike. And I'm Mike, too. And this is a Cigar Hustlers Podcast. We have a very special guest today.

His name is Casey Hogan from Crux, right? Yes. That's your name, right? Casey Hogan from Crux Cigar.

Say hi. Thank you for having me, guys. It's been a pleasure to be here so far today. It's so nice to have you here.

I mean, this is like your third time in the shop, and, you know, we appreciate you really, you know, putting forth the effort and coming in for a ton. You know, I like coming here because, you know, you have what you think are great friends in the industry until they haven't seen you for 36 hours, and then they become really disappointed in you, so when you make that strong effort to really go a little bit farther than you would for anybody else, you know, that's when you feel like you're welcome. You come in, great big arms, big hugs, you know, a lot of great things happen in here at Sarah Hustles. Yeah, and then, you know, then they poop all over you, which is, you know...

Fair. Tomorrow. Tomorrow. We'll talk about you after you leave.

I mean, in all fairness, though, you know, I do give you a hard time and shit, but however, you know, I go out on the road once every two or three months, and that's fucking genuine, you know, like, generous of a statement for me to say something like that, because I hardly ever go out. I mean, granted, you are in Miami and we're up in Deltona, it's only like a four hour difference. You could come up for like a weekend to kind of shoot the shit, but whatever, that's neither here nor there. Yeah, I mean, exactly.

There's a lot of weekends. There's 52 weekends in a year, I think. I think that's the number they use. And, you know, some of those are tied with, you know, other people, like my family and my friends.

You don't have a family. Outside of the business. You don't have friends. I say, but I live by myself in Miami, so when I'm down there after traveling, week in and week out, not once in a blue moon, like my weekend, at least my Sunday, I try to relax and play golf.

You don't play golf, that's why we're not completely 100% close. It's true. But we can get into those details later. Do you think that on a Sunday you kind of go into a dark room and just cry?

Well, it's... Golf course and cry. Golf course and cry. I mean, why are you backing him up on this?

You're supposed to be, you're the co-producer. I'm sorry, and back into the dark hole and cry. For the love of Christ. All right, so hey, so we got to, you know, you got a great story, and we're excited to have you on the show because you've done a lot of rare things that I don't think anybody in the tobacco industry has really done.

You skipped, what are we, smoking? We always do that in the morning? Ah, yes. That's why I'm not the executive producer.

So Casey, tell us what we are smoking. Today we are smoking the newest release by Crux Cigars, the Epicure. It came out at the end of last year. It's got an Ecuadorian, Connecticut wrapper, Nicaraguan filler binder.

It's going to be mild, medium plus, creamy, really good cigar for us. Our first shot at a Connecticut, and we're really happy with it. It's very nice so far. He did that very well.

He's done it once in a while. He's a professional. He's a professional. All right, so I'm going to start lightly in 2007 because, I mean, that's kind of where your transition into the tobacco industry is, but at a young age, you were in college, right?

Well, as a young age, I was born in 1984, so we can start there. That's nice. Well, fast forward to 2007 when I graduated from college from St. Jan's University of Minnesota and started working for my cousin and owner of Crux partner, Jeff Hogan, I have a friend who has tobacco retail stores in Minnesota, you know, premium cigar shops, some of the best, one of the best in all of Minnesota, if not the, and, you know, he kind of introduced me, I've been around cigars my whole life, because, you know, my older cousin had always had me around it, got out of college, and had the opportunity to work for him at one of his stores, and it was kind of my first introduction professionally into the cigar world.

Okay, but what did you do, what did you go to college for? A business degree, St. John's University. Okay, all right, so you started off at Tobacco Grove in 2007, and then you were also a professional baseball player.

Yes, I randomly was selected by, I played college baseball, so it's not just, didn't just walk in, I got a call from a scout who was a coach in our league, seven games in, their catcher went down, I got a call, and I never heard much about this independent league, And, you know, I was always a guy who was, you know, I was all-region. I was an all-region gold glove. I was all-conference. So I was a good college baseball player.

Nothing great. I was good. Wow. And never thought, like, the next level was an opportunity until one day out of the blue, I got a call and I asked my dad, who happens to be a college baseball coach, for where I played at St.

John's. He's been there for 40-plus years. He's got his own field named after him. Kind of a big deal.

He's kind of a big deal. That's kind of the reason why I got to play. But it worked out, and I had a pretty good career, but I got the opportunity, and I ended up playing just over two years of independent minor league baseball through three different leagues, five different teams. I was a meanderer, I was the 10th man, I was a catcher, good enough to be there, not good enough to stay put.

I played in Fargo, Winnipeg, Evansville, Indiana, Shreveport, Louisiana, and had a cup of coffee in Washington, Pennsylvania. So what was your favorite team that you played for? The favorite team I played for, well, I played most of the time, I had a full season with Fargo Morehead, so that was a lot of the memories in that Northern League it was at the time, and they've all combined, so I'm not sure what they call them now, but it was great, we made it to the second round of the playoffs, traveled all over the country, and gave me the opportunity to travel for two and a half years outside of Minnesota, I mean, I'm a small-town kid from central Minnesota who went to a small-town college right in the middle of the country, and I've been able to travel for two and a half years outside of Minnesota. I mean, I was a small-town kid from central Minnesota who went to a small-town college right next to where I grew up, and that was life.

Hadn't really heard, you know, people speak English, languages other than English, didn't have a passport, and I thought, what else is there? It never really crossed my mind, so it really opened my eyes up to what else is out there in the world. Okay, so why did you leave baseball? Well, you don't really get to leave, so when they say, "We're not going to give you a paycheck anymore," And these paychecks were astronomically large numbers.

For me, my first contract was $800 a month, guaranteed for one day. I did reach an extent at the time in Evansville in the Frontier League where I was making League Max at $1,600 a month. Nice! So I kind of felt like a baller.

It was also for a short stint at the end of the season and they needed a catcher. The versatility of being a catcher, but I can say I got paid League Max for a couple months. And then after I had that cup of coffee in Washington, Pennsylvania, it just really wasn't working out. I mean, like I said, good enough to be there for a while, had the opportunities, and some moves just didn't go my way, and, you know, you end up going back to Minneapolis and, you know, hope for that next call, but you hang it up because nobody else wants you.

Right. Alright, so in the time of you doing all this and you're in the baseball, you're in the minor leagues, you're also working at the retail shop, correct? Well, yes. Well, not during the season, obviously.

We played 96 games in 110, 15 days. Basically, you had every other Monday off, so it's basically summer baseball for four months. And so the rest of the year, I was getting paid those high salaries of $800 to $1,600 a month, you've got to have a job, a real job to at least eat for the off-season and get your gym membership and that kind of stuff, and start paying student loans. So you only get paid during season?

Oh, of course, you only get paid during season. No, it's not 12 months. Every day you're there, you get your portion. If you take a day off, I had one time where I had to fly back for a reason for the family thing.

Right. I didn't get paid that day. Wow. Wow.

It's independent minor league baseball. It's a cutthroat league. There's a lot of people that want to be there. I mean, so very few people get the opportunity to play college baseball, yet minor league baseball.

And it was awesome. But I was an undrafted, unrecruited, last-minute signee that was a fill-in guy that got the opportunity. So there was guys making real money in some of those leagues. leagues we're talking upwards of six thousand dollars a month with signing bonuses with incentives but i was a i was a throwaway guy they could have replaced me any given moment thankfully i got there and had some success early on and i was given the opportunity to continue to play i thought i could have been there for a day a week a month a season um but uh it was it's kind of strange you have a 22-man roster and i think my first year i had over 45 teammates wow because the ever the ever The ever-lasting rotation of those last few spots, thankfully I was a catcher, was also fast, got on base, so I was kind of, you know, that 10th man that could catch, which you need a second catcher, but I could also play the outfield, I could run, I could bunt, I could swing, you know, so I had some kind of utility player aspects, and that's really the only reason why I got to hang out.

Okay, so I don't know a lot about baseball, I apologize. That's okay. So, but essentially, in order to get into the MLB, a major path is through that minor league baseball? league baseball it wouldn't be the direct it would be the secondary option for guys that aren't willing to hang it up and still have it's that league independent league is kind of the guys that didn't get drafted to have an option or the guys that are kind of on the way down okay that have i mean we played with i had a couple guys that we played with that did have you know some time in major leagues triple a double a and depending on which independent league um the competition is stiff it's good competition we're talking high a to double a to i mean even some of the East Coast independent leagues, have a lot of double and triple AX players that just flailed out there.

So it's kind of the guys that didn't get the great start, that weren't that great out of college or get drafted, never got that, you know, they call that the affiliated ball league. They never got that opportunity. But it's either the way up or the way down. That's got to suck, going backwards.

I mean, I never got to go backwards. So I was thankful just to be there. But I'll just remember I saw this guy one of my first games, And I was pretty good in college, but I never knew if I could play at that level. I was getting the opportunity to day one, guys throwing 96 miles an hour.

Yikes. " So they're there at our league because, yeah, there was talent, but the control wasn't quite there. Guys could hit home runs, guys just didn't hit for average, guys could throw hard, guys had great pitches, but they didn't control it. So it was a very difficult league.

They've always said the hardest league to hit in an affiliated ball is high A because there's all the talent and none of the control. So it was a very difficult league and somehow you find a way to succeed if you're going to continue. Okay, so I'm assuming that 96 backstop was bad. 96 backstop means watch out, it might hit you in the head.

Oh, okay, yeah, yeah. I'm assuming that's definitely not good. It's an old Bull Durham reference. Just a bit outside.

Just a bit outside. Tried the corner and missed. Yeah, ball eight and ball 12, he's lost. All right, so, you were terminated from the minor leagues and...

I like to call it retired. I mean, but it's forced retirement. So let me ask you, is there a particular player that comes in mind that was in the minor leagues and made it to the major leagues kind of like... Somebody that you played with?

Maybe not necessarily somebody that you played with, but a person that was, you know, that went that route that was, you know, I don't know, upper tier into the MLB. Well, one of the guys that I remember that was coming down, that kind of went that, I ended up getting to play with a guy named Juan Mello, he was on his way, he had, like I said, I used the word cup of coffee, meaning being there for a minute, he had a cup of coffee in Major League Baseball, but then there's guys that I played with from all over the country, I mean, Dominican guys, Nicaraguan guys, that, you know, they never really got the shake, there was guys that were first round draft picks, a big left-hander out of Vanderbilt College who was drafted 15th overall in 1998 in front of CeCe Sabathie. They were both left-handed pitchers, was a teammate of mine, you know, some just great players that got injured, they did something, first-round draft picks got injured, never got to shake, some guys that were, you know, ended up being Atlantic League All-Stars, MVPs in different, so it's hard to pick just a few names because it's, there's so many of guys that had shots, but major players that like, that people would know, there's, I don't have one to tell you. Okay.

All right, so four or five years of that rough, and then about 2013, you became the operating manager for Crux. Well, let's rewind just a minute there. Yes, let's rewind. So, let's rewind.

So, after that was over, I went back to Minneapolis and had told Kaz I was retired, unless somebody gave me another opportunity, which, after a couple months, it hadn't happened, and I had kind of had the realization of, you know, life after baseball now, Now it's all my buddies have been, you know, getting real jobs for two years and they're two years in front of me, even though they would have traded everything they had to do what I was doing, traveling all over the country, playing baseball for a living, you know, it was awesome, don't get me wrong, I wouldn't trade it for the world. But I then wasn't satisfied living in the cold Minnesota. And I needed to find a real job. So I ended up moving to Nevada with a college friend of mine, just to start, just to look for a job.

And it was smart for me because at the time the unemployment rate in Nevada was like 15%, which I don't know if people know numbers, that's the astronomically highest it's ever been in one state at a time. But I mean, I had a college degree and I had a drive and I needed to get a job, but I didn't want to start it in Minneapolis because I had had the last two years of travel all over the country and realized there's more to the world than central Minnesota. So that was one of the best things I ever made to play was to get to experience a lot more and ended up moving to Nevada, lucked into a great deal running a retail golf store in like the second month I was there after my first job, which I tell people was a Calvin Klein model, it was actually three shifts at Calvin Klein to pay some rent because I didn't have any money, but I moved out there, broke, didn't care, I was ready to go. But it was a great experience.

That turned into running that golf company within the first six months. The guy who was running it left and they gave me the opportunity. You grow a company from under a million a year to over four million in three and a half years. You're doing something right.

You're doing something right. And that was the experience I needed in the real world to learn how to do a business. And I got to do it on somebody else's time, on somebody else's dime. - You learned.

- Doing a lot of things right. - Right. " - Right. - Because my interpretation was moving back to Minnesota.

- Right. - I've just been living the dream, playing 150 rounds of golf a year, being in the golf business, being outside, my buddies, having such a great time. It was a great time. If anybody's ever been to Las Vegas, it's a pretty fun place.

And we lived off the Strip, so it wasn't that same life. But, I mean, playing golf all year round, it was awesome. But it was a great time because he told me I could live in Florida. I said, that's a different game.

He goes, you can live in South Florida or there's opportunities in Texas or, you know, wherever. And we ended up settling on South Florida. So, he had been doing some research himself. Obviously, he'd been a retailer at the time for going on now 25 years, but at the time like 17 years.

He spent three years in Central America doing a SWOT analysis in every factory. He was basically there a week a month, going through every factory, learning the blending process, because he was a retailer, but obviously not a cigar blender. 50. So that's why the manufacturing side came about, and he did his due diligence, going through all the factories, going through all the countries, learning the blending process, learning about tobacco, and really, the time I was in Vegas, he was doing his own research, his personal growth in the blending side of things, as I was doing my personal growth in the business side of things.

Okay. That's awesome. So, Jeff, just to clarify everything, Jeff is your cousin, correct? And he runs Tobacco Grove, and he started to kind of gravitate into the production of his own cigars, right?

About 10 years ago, yeah, he started that. And it was kind of some private label stuff that he'd go down, you know, like retailers head down to Central America all the time, and they'd blend stuff, they have private label stuff that they like, but he really wanted to know the whole process, so he spent 50-some trips, you know, over three years traveling from Minneapolis, and that's a long trip to get down there, and he was dedicated to learning the process so we could have a company. So he's our blender, he blends 100% of everything we make, and I just try to continually get the same consistency out of what he's designed. Right, so you do go down to Estelina, Karagua, and check on?

Correct, I mean, I'm based out of Miami, so I get down there five to seven times a year, so every start of production and a production packing, I mean, I've been there many, many times over the last four years, but five to seven times a year usually. Okay, so the job took off in 2013, and you became the operating manager at that point for Crux. Yeah, we were getting prepared to launch Crux at the 2014 IPCPR, which was in Las Vegas, and Jeff and Mark, who's our designer, another partner of ours, they had gotten everything while I was doing mine. Mark had his designs, Jeff had a portfolio of blends that he was happy with, and it was really kind of putting the final touches together of we think we're about ready for this to become a real business.

That's when he contacted me and we had talked, and we started getting things rolling. So that was at the end of '13, we started getting ready to launch in July of '14, ended up throwing our first launch cigar before the show was actually a unique cigar, The reason we did it was we were coming out in 60 days with a full portfolio. However, we needed to make a buzz. Nobody knew who Crocs Cigars was.

Nobody should have known. So, we came out with these guys and I think we opened up 15 to 20 retailers across the country of friends of Jeff's and people that, you know, we could talk to from all his, you know, His longevity of connections through, they took some of the cigars in, some social media started happening, and it's really developed into a kind of a, people knew who we were a little bit in '14, and then we came out with five other blends at the show two months later. Okay, so in 2014, you're still in Las Vegas, right? You're in Nevada?

Yeah, beginning of '14, once we started getting it going, I was going back and forth from Miami to Nevada and down to Central America occasionally. Not as much at that point because Jeff was kind of just wrapping up the first blends and he had done all the quality control and that stuff to that point. I wasn't the tobacco connoisseur at that point. I loved tobacco.

I knew tobacco. I knew I could learn it. But it was learning our products, the things that he'd made. Now we had a portfolio and an inventory.

And so I was still going back and forth looking for space, living in Nevada, going to Miami, you know, at least once a month for a week. So, three weeks in Nevada, a week in Miami for like six months, which, that commute gets a little old, knowing we are going to do business operations out of South Florida, so we worked our way to the show, got everything ready, and then as soon as 2014 IPCPR was over, that's when I bolted and officially became a Florida resident. Okay, so, but before you bolted, you got to tell the story about the dog. Okay, so I always been a dog person, had two golden retrievers growing up, three golden retrievers growing up with my family, always been a dog person, and my roommate in Nevada had a dog, and I had talked about getting a dog, we had a yard, we had a fence, like why not get another one?

So it shows up for Christmas in 2007, 8, somewhere in there, my roommate buys me a dog for Christmas. Okay, so now your roommate is a boy or a girl? It's a female. Okay, and you guys are not, it's a strictly...

It's a platonic relationship, she's actually, her, she's now married to one of my other best friends, both of them who have been my roommates, and I like to be the one that says, they had dated, didn't date, had dated, and I feel like I gave them that final kick in the ass to say, you two need to get this shit taken care of, and then go get married and have babies, and now they did, so... So they had babies? They do, they have two kids, he's in the Navy, he was based in the Navy, went to St. John's, based in the Navy, He's been in the Navy now for 12 years, I think it is.

No Babies Named Casey? No Babies Named Casey. How about that? How did they not get a Casey baby?

It's kind of, I don't get the full credit. That's bullshit. Because a buddy of mine calls me, first year I'm in Nevada, and says, "Hey, can you come visit me? " I had just started a new job, I couldn't go.

So, I tell Krista, I think Jamie is his name, and I go, "I think Jamie, you know, he just needs He's a buddy, he's been on a ship, he misses his friends, his family, a little homesick. Right. Somebody's got to go and I can't go. I go, it's going to be you and you're going and it's free and it's paid for and you're going.

And they were ex-boyfriend and girlfriend who hadn't spoken in six months. Oh. And, well, he spent three weeks in Honolulu, hanging out on the beach. You know, things can happen.

A little rekindling. A little rekindling. So, I tell them it's the end of the story and she doesn't give me credit for that. Damn it.

But she's wrong. She says it would have worked out either way. But anyway, so she buys me this dog, great dog, it was a German Shepherd Red Nose Pitbull, which I then renamed the German Red Nose, so you didn't have to tell people it was a Pitbull, because Pitbulls are not looked on upon as the most family friendly dog, even though they're the most loyal dogs I believe out there. I loved it, so the dog has its own problems, and a quicker story, the dog ends up being a free dog and costing me almost $20,000.

Right, wow. Because it first and foremost ate a towel and lacerated its spleen and had a $9,000 bill on that. Nice. Then we docked its tail because it got what they call happy tail, which bled everywhere and looked like a murder scene.

Oh, it does. I had a great Dane that happened to it. Yeah, happy tail. I taped it for about six months, never healed, and one day, I don't know if she got tired of it or whatever, she chewed off half her tail.

Oh, God. Happy as hell when it got there. I got home and there was a murder scene all over the house and I saw blood everywhere. Then half her tail's missing, so we ended up docking that, that was another couple grand, then a couple more complications, just different stuff, and I was actually going to bring the dog to Florida when I moved, and I had a house in South Florida with a yard, same kind of setup I had, but I wasn't traveling as much as I do now, and now it's a good thing it never worked out, because the time of the year you couldn't fly out with a dog because of the heat in Nevada, you can't fly on a plane with a dog over 90 degrees underneath.

Because I wasn't going to register a pretend service animal, because I don't need a service animal, I wasn't going to pretendly do that, but my sister was going to drive it out, yada, yada, yada, the dog had another episode where it had to go in, she couldn't fly for six months, all these things came down to it, my roommate, who also has another dog, who was my next roommate after that, the dogs lived together for four years, ended up having a great home, they lived together, the two dogs are best friends, dogs taken care of, dogs and It's probably a better home than I could have in now, even though we do a lot of fun things, but the best free dog I ever had cost me about $20,000. That's fantastic. What's the dog's name? The dog's name is Callie.

Callie. Callie, the German red nose. Sounds like Greg's dog. Greg has a $20,000.

Yeah, my brother has a very similar story where, you know, I think that's how we originally got on the topic of the conversation. Oh yeah, that's right. You know, because the dog got an IV every day. The dog no longer needs an IV, which is really nice.

Step in the right direction. Yeah, for sure. All right, so we got a couple of questions that we like to ask every single person. Everybody gets these same three questions.

And I don't think that you listen to our podcast, so you don't... He's not one of the ten people now that we're... Hey, listen, we're getting more downloads. I downloaded the next episode, though.

You did? The next one. This one coming up? The next, whatever the next one is.

Whatever the next one is? Casey from Crux? Yeah, I can download that. Actually, it'd be Fred Rui.

Fred Rui. Ooh, that'd be a good one. He gets a good interview. He did.

We had a good time with Fred. All right, you ready? Here's the first question. What one person, living or dead, would you like to have a cigar with?

Dun, dun, dun. It's going to be a pretty standard answer, but every time I get to have a cigar with my dad. Right. I mean, he's been my hero, my legend, he was my coach.

Right. He's not a huge cigar smoker, really only does it when I'm around him, or when he's with my cousin and I, and those are the memories I'll cherish for the rest of my life. Right. That's a great answer.

That's a great answer. All right, second question. Best piece of advice anyone ever gave you? Always ask why.

Always ask why. We might have changed the questions. People are getting too fast on the answers. But I beat my kids every time they do it.

So the reason it is like, it's always like people are just satisfied with the answers, and as somebody that wants to learn, if you're just doing what you're told, you're never going to learn. You can learn what you're told, but the behind that is ask why, and it's such an easy question. Like, why do we do it that way? Why?

Here's what you're going to do. Why? And their answer may be right, and it might be the right way to do it, and it might be the perfect way to do it. But, it could also lead to other conversations about why, and I say, asking why will make you a more intelligent person.

But I told you to come on the podcast, you didn't say why. Yeah, I did. I knew why. Oh, okay.

Why? Because this was going to help me and our relationship blossom into a little bit closer, because 36 hours ago, we were fighting. And at least 36 hours from now, we won't be. That's true.

That's very true. We were fighting 36 hours ago? You were mad at somebody, I'm sure. Yeah, probably.

Did he take your monster out of the refrigerator? I don't know. But that's definitely a problem that's going on in the shop, let me tell you. So, like, I drink the Monsters.

Those are healthy, by the way. You should do those more often. I just do like the one. Like the one a day.

Drink a bottle of water, maybe have a cup of coffee. I do all that, too. Yeah, but, you know, we should really talk about your health, because from the last time I saw you, you have a little bit different pigment in your face. You think so?

I think you need to either get in the sun, you need to hit the gym. I hit the gym every day. Then you need to do it better, more efficiently. You're doing the gym wrong.

You know, I thought you said 36 hours ago we were fighting 36 hours from now, we're gonna be good. Now you're fighting now. I think we have a fucking problem after the end of this podcast. But I'm here to help.

Yeah, well, you know, you gotta reevaluate your crucial conversations and your ability to talk to people. It's tough love, he's doing tough love. Fucking melting down over here. Now I gotta get into like a tanning booth or something.

That's never gonna happen, by the way. So anyways, I was saying that I'd like to have the occasional, the occasional monster. I take my monster, the zero, the white, the white one, the zero, the no sugar, and no carbs. And, you know, I take my one, I keep it in the fridge, and then I, when I take that one out of the fridge, I put one back in the fridge.

However, for whatever reason, something is going on here when I'm not here on the weekends that someone is taking my monsters, consuming my monsters, and not replacing them. So, like, I started today off, like, midday, with a warm monster, which is a problem. You think you seem cranky. I think this all kind of stems back to what I was talking about.

What do you think about if we just changed your habits to more healthy habits? We can start with maybe some green tea, maybe a smoothie. You drink way more beer than I do. That's not true.

That is very true. You're having one now, aren't you? So you've never had a beer? I have.

You own a beer store. I do. I do not. I drink Guinness when I'm with you.

So you pay full retail for yours. That's not my problem. Fair. I'm not paying for that one.

No, you're not. You're absolutely correct there. All right, so what's the next question? All right, final question.

What is your favorite cigar? Ooh. Mine or somebody else's? Answer the question.

My favorite cigar that I smoke predominantly most is our De Connoisseur No. 3. It's a small little Pentatella. That is a really good cigar.

I tell people it's medium-bodied Habano, it's got 60% Lajero in it, and it's a short smoke, it's a Pentatella, it's 5 and 5/8 by 35. It's probably due to, you know, the time restraints that I have, as well, it's just such a flavorful cigar. Okay. And one that isn't yours?

I smoke probably my number two, it's a toss-up between two of my good buddies that have really delicious cigars, so I'm going to plug them both real quick. It's an HR Corona Signature, or the... Is that the 2000 Habano? It's the brown label signature, the 2000, or the Roma Craft Intemperance, 4x42, I believe it's called the Intrigue.

Okay, the BA? The BA. Okay, so, now, of those two, which one, I gotta have which one's better than the other? I gotta know which one is best.

Better, no, I smoke more of the BA's. You smoke more of the BA's? Mm-hmm, okay. Probably because I have friends, he's probably a better friend and he gives me more cigars.

Yeah. And the other guy's kind of a dick. He's definitely a dick. And, yeah, Mike and Skip, they take care of me, and I see them, and they're more generous, or I'm a better weasel.

But, you know, Spence is a great guy to a lot of people, just not to me. Oh, poor Spence. I love you, Spence. I mean, we all love you, but, I mean, those things are all true.

Yeah, those are actual facts. Before we let you go, I did have to ask you one question. With your crux design, was there a meaning for any of it on the logo? I mean, it's got kind of like a cross with a dagger and a baby.

Well, Mark, who our designer, has designed all of our logos. And the logo is a very unique word that we wanted something that kind of stood out. So it's got kind of one of the interpretations of the word crux is crucifixion, as well as constellation, as well as, you know, what's the crux of the matter? Basically, what's the point?

What's your decision? And, you know, when you're trying to design a logo, you want to have a recurring element, so Mark made the sword with the emblem, the Swarovski crystal, by the way, it's light Siam, if you wanted to know the color, also known as bedazzling, which I've done plenty of, we wanted a recurring element that kind of stayed true, like the Nike Swoosh, I mean, Nike's got a logo that says Nike, but they've evolved into it, and everybody sees a Swoosh, they know what it is, so, not to say we're going to sell more cigars than Nike is shoes. You went with that attitude. Well, we will one day, especially since I read Phil Knight's book, I exactly know what he did, so I know how to do it, and we've got a great team at Crux, and we're coming out with a lot of new stuff, year in and year out, trying to fill the portfolio, but really what it is, it's just a logo that you see, you can resonate with, and it's got some medieval feel, and it's what we've had for 2014, and it's kind of what people recognize, and there's goods and bads about every logo.

And I think we have a lot of positives with that one. So you read a lot of books, or just that one? Well, I read that one. What else did I read?

Lately, I also read the, I read the Joe Buck book, if anybody hasn't read that book. I can't remember the title, and I actually don't want to say it on air, because it's a little bit, but that book will give you a great appreciation to the sports broadcaster world. You're such a sports guy. And I'm a golf guy, to be honest with you.

Like, I love golf, I played football, baseball, hockey, all the stuff in high school, and, you know, college. Curling? What about curling? I love it.

That's how I'm going to get my Olympic medal, by the way. Yeah? I mean, I feel like in 30 years, I still have a shot. It's true.

Because there's a 50-year-old on the Norwegian curling team right now who I watched, and now they've got Curling Night in America and backing up. So, sports was great, but golf is my passion with cigars now, and it's a thing that you can do by yourself for the rest of your life. Yeah, it's one of the only games you can start when you're three or four years old and play when you're 70. He's only 80 years old, right?

The Golf, yes. Yeah. Thanks. Hey, Casey, do you want to tell people I can get ahold of you?

com. We have Facebook, Instagram, Twitter at Crux Cigars. Also, my personal is Casey Hogan Crux on Instagram and Twitter, and feel free to check out our webpage, find our retailers, our great Crux retail partners like, you know, these people here in Deltona, cigar hustlers. Shameless plug, thank you.

Great plug for, you know, some great partners for us, but no, they truly have been, they've been good partners for us here, and, you know, it's guys like this that let us do what we do for a living as full-time, and I mean, this is my full-time gig, and this is what we love to do, you know, cigars, golf, and, you know, shooting the shit. There you go, man, and thank you very much for coming on the show. Yes, thank you for coming on and taking the time to come on the way up from Miami. You are a good guy, man, and we do have a good relationship, I know that we beat each other up a little bit.

But my brother and I have a great relationship, too, but nobody's ever made more fun of me than him. So I feel like in this industry, if you've got thin skin, you're going to lose. And the fact is, my best relationships in this industry are guys that I can treat like family, that I can treat like brothers. Don't get me wrong, we're going to give you shit, because you need to be called out on it.

Because you don't have those friends now that are, like you're in high school, that you don't do shit because they tell you it's stupid. As we grow older, we need our friends to do that. And, you know, we are immersed in our industry, and those become our friends. I mean, I moved to a city that I knew nobody for my business, for our business with my, you know, my partners and my cousin, and like, I made that effort to move there, and the fact is, it's a community in our industry that is unlike nothing else that I've ever been a part of, and friends, family, brothers, sisters, it's, it's, it's pretty extraordinary.

Very true, man. When you go, when you're in Miami, what's your favorite shop to hang out at? Yeah, I hang out at probably the most unique boutique cigar store in southwest Miami called Caribbean Cigars. Ah, yes.

And there's a lot of great reasons why I'm there. One of them, because they're a good customer of mine, and they sell our cigars, and they sell your cigars. They do. And they're a boutique shop, and they sell a lot of great stuff, and they're open until midnight.

Right. They're open noon to midnight every day, so I don't have to try to get there by 7 o'clock, because when we're in town, we're running. I don't get to be in Miami as much as I want, I'd love to stay at the beach, so I always tell people, buy more of my cigars, buy more of our cigars, and I'll get to spend more time on the beach. Right, there you go, that sounds good.

Alan is an awesome guy, and it's definitely always entertaining if you walk into that shop no matter what time. It's a meeting of the minds when you're there. You're going to see cigar manufacturers, I mean, it's kind of the out-of-the-way cigar manufacturers spot. We've got guys like Hector Alfonso from Espinosa hangs out there, you've got Jack Taranio from Taranio Cigars, he hangs out there.

I mean, you come down there, when Mike comes into town, he's always there, Rosales from Roma Craft, Lorenzo from HVC is always there. He's a good dude, too. You've got just industry, kind of night can happen on any random given Tuesday. I mean, Spencer Drake was just there a couple days ago.

The legendary. The legendary for the first time ever in his life. But he travels, but he's got great representation down there as well. Right.

There's a lot of good people that hang out there. And there, it's a very great shop in South Florida, and, you know, we appreciate those guys as well. I mean, that's a home away from home, even though it's 50 minutes from where I live, it's where I hang out the most. 50 minutes?

Mm-hmm. But how far is that in, like, how many blocks is that in Miami? Oh, it's-- Two. No, no, no, no, so it's-- I could go down the elevator.

No, it's highway driving. Really? Yeah, I'm on the other side. Oh, no shit.

That's southwest. I'm north of Miami in Sunny Isles Beach. Gotcha. So, closer to the beach.

So, it's still a commitment to go visit? Right on the beach. That's where you live? He's right on the beach.

Right on the beach. It's a commitment. So he's on the beach is what he's trying to say. So where exactly are you, Logan?

Just on the beach. Oh, okay. But that's the commitment home. My office is like halfway between both.

Gotcha. So, I mean, it must be really cool to go home and stare at the beach for about 10 friggin' minutes and then get back out on the road. It's a great vacation spot that I pay rent to it all the time. And where you'd cry at on Sundays?

I'm going to cry, curl up in a ball, hang out with my friends, which is myself. All right, all right, this is getting too dark. This is getting way too dark. It's going way the wrong way.

All right, so is that it? That's it. That's all we got. That's the end of the show.

Well, I just want to thank you guys for having me on. com, find our retail partners, check out where we are online, buy more Crux, and go Crux yourself. All right, thanks, man. Appreciate it, thank you.

Later. All right, gang, that's it. That's it. Show's over.

Time to put out that cigar and get back to work. Ain't nobody gonna do it for you. Everybody get hustlin'. We win it now.

We win it now. We win it now.

Show Notes

This week continuing our Origin Series we sit down and talk to Mr Casey Haugen of Crux Cigars.  Listen in as he tells us about his Baseball career and how it led him to Crux Cigars.