Robert Holt Southern Draw Cigars Episode 15

Episode Summary

Episode 15 of A Cigar Hustler's Podcast is an origin-story interview with Robert Holt, founder of Southern Draw Cigars, recorded ahead of Texas Cigar Fest. Holt walks Mike and Mike through eight years of U.S. Army service (he enlisted at 17 out of East Texas, following a family line of Army men), his background as an electrical engineer focused on communications, and how that expertise made him one of the first ten employees at Primeco — the company that became Verizon Wireless. Building wireless networks across Central and South America from roughly 2001 to 2009 put him inside the world's best tobacco-growing regions, where cell-tower crews with Dominican and Cuban roots introduced him to their families' farms and taught him about buying, aging, and fermenting leaf.

The heart of the episode is how Southern Draw was "born of failure." Holt explains that a Latin American business venture ended in fraud, wiping out the assets and Qualcomm stock he'd built in his 20s and 30s. His wife Sharon's response — and a brand name sketched on a beer napkin in Austin, Texas — became the company, with Sharon taking 51% and running customer service and distribution while Robert handled blending, sourcing, packaging, and the road. He details the meanings behind the names: Rose of Sharon (a Song of Solomon reference, his wife's name, and a flowering plant that supplied the band's Pantone pink), Jacob's Ladder (named for his son Ethan Jacob), Firethorn (a nod to the 15th hole at Augusta National and a sergeant major's retirement ceremony), and Kudzu (the invasive Southern vine that meant "home" after six years of overseas deployments). He also reveals, for the first time on this show, a new Jacob's Ladder vitola releasing April 14 at Texas Cigar Fest as a charity release benefiting Cigars for Warriors.

Along the way Holt covers Southern Draw's production — roughly a million cigars this year, made in partnership with AJ Fernandez — the 56 blends the company registered with the FDA ahead of the August 8, 2016 deeming regulations, and his philosophy of building fewer, better retailer relationships (advice credited to RoMa Craft's Skip Martin and Michael Rosales). He also shares that he spent 324 days on the road in 2017. The closing four questions cover who he'd smoke with (his wife's late grandfather, "The Oak"), his favorite cigars (Rose of Sharon, plus RoMa Craft Neanderthal, Fable, Aladino, and Sumatra-wrapped smokes), the best advice he ever got from Dr. Faulkner at East Texas State University — "establish the expectation, diminish disappointment" — and his fictional pick, Al Pacino's Tony Montana from Scarface. He recommends "Who Moved My Cheese" as a favorite read.

In This Episode

1. 01
   Army service and family lineage
   Holt on enlisting at 17, eight years in Army intelligence and communications, and a family where every male served.
2. 02
   From Primeco to Verizon Wireless
   How his electrical engineering and packet-data expertise made him one of Primeco's first ten employees and a network architect.
3. 03
   Central and South America and tobacco
   Building wireless networks in tobacco-growing countries led to evenings of cigars and an education in aging, fermentation, and leaf buying.
4. 04
   Born of failure: losing everything
   A Latin American venture gone bad wiped out the family's assets and Qualcomm stock, setting the stage for a new start.
5. 05
   The beer napkin and the Southern Draw partnership
   The brand name sketched in Austin, and Sharon's 51/49 deal splitting customer service and distribution from blending and sales.
6. 06
   What the cigar names mean
   Rose of Sharon, Jacob's Ladder, Firethorn, and Kudzu — biblical references, flowering plants, family, and military homages.
7. 07
   Production, the FDA, and growth strategy
   About a million cigars a year with AJ Fernandez, 56 blends registered before the deeming deadline, and 324 days on the road in 2017.
8. 08
   The four questions
   Holt's answers on sharing a cigar with 'The Oak,' his favorite smokes, Dr. Faulkner's communication advice, and Scarface.

Brands & Cigars Discussed

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Transcript

Every day I'm hustling, 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 'em, every day 'em, every day 'em.

Hi, I'm Mike. And I'm Mike, too. And this is a Cigar Hustlers podcast. See?

I'm not gonna do it anymore 'cause you fucked me up the last three times. Well, you did a great job with that one. Thank you very much. I appreciate the revenge.

We have one Mr. Robert Holt with us today of Southern Draw Cigars. Say hello, Robert. Hey, hello.

Appreciate you, Mike and Mike, for having me on the Hustlers today. Thank you. I appreciate you coming all the way out from Texas and coming on the show today. So, um...

This is an origin series. We talk about pretty much your come up and what you did prior to the industry and how the hell you found your way into the cigar industry, which tends to be pretty unique by every single person. S. Army veteran.

Is that a good place to start? I think so. I think if you think about military service, and prior service, and current service, it goes toward the mission of Southern Draw anyway. So, the fact that I am a veteran and come from a long lineage of veterans, I think it's important to us that our mission and part of what we do with the brand is really supporting current and prior service military.

So, it's a good start. So, was everybody in your family army, or did you go against the grain? No, actually, every male in our family was Army. Really?

Okay, that's awesome. So, how long were you in the military? Eight years. Eight years.

And what made you get out? Did you term? You know, I did my time. And, you know, I guess, using a reference, as my father did 29 and one-half years, all Army service, of course, but for me, you know, I did two different terms, two different enlistments.

I was an enlistement. It took me around the world and back again a few times, and I learned a lot, you know, I learned a lot about cultures and societies and governments and places we don't want to be and some places we want to be, but ultimately, at the point where it was to enlist the third time or not, it made more sense for me to move on into the civilian sector. So how old were you when you originally enlisted? Like 18 right out of the school?

Yes, I enlisted when I was 17 and actually went in later in the winter when I was 18 after I graduated from high school. So that was kind of your plan from the beginning of time? Absolutely not, absolutely not. You know, I grew up in a military household.

I grew up with a very stern, you know, seven brothers and sisters split between two houses. Only seven. Only seven. And we're not Catholic, go figure.

But, you know, we lived 10 miles apart, the two separate families that were kind of split through divorce. But the last thing I ever thought I would do was join the military. Oh, shit. What I really believed I would do would, A, be a lawyer, or B, I would be just some professional football player, right?

But ultimately, coming out of East Texas at that point, if you don't make it in football, how do you feed the family, right? Right. So what was the changing point for you that made you decide to join the military? I think it was a change in the military strategy.

You know, I am an engineer, I'm an electrical engineer, but really my focus growing up was on communication, and I had the luxury of working on some technologies leading up to my military enlistment that I believe would be adopted at some point by the government, which is basically bringing technology and communication platforms current using what we have today, which is data communications, which would get beyond the voice. And I was sold a great bill of goods, right? The recruiters come out and they say, listen, man, you've scored well in this test, and this is what you can do for us. This is what we can do for you.

What do you think? And I looked at it like this, you know, provide my uniforms, provide my food, provide me a place to sleep, and hopefully I can make a difference and do good, you know. So they got you. It was a hell of a sales pitch, huh?

They hooked me. They hooked me. So just to kind of jump into what we're smoking, I believe I'm smoking the Rose of Sharon. What do you have there?

I am smoking a yet-to-be-released version of the Jacobs Ladder, broadly. Okay. And that's going to be released at Texas Cigar Fest? Absolutely.

And this is the first time I've mentioned it, so nobody knows. Oh, an exclusive. April 14th, right here, Cigar Hustlers, you have it. April 14th, Southern Draw will be releasing a new and special Vitola that will be for a charity cause for the military with Cigars for Warriors.

But come next Saturday, this is going to hit the market. Very nice. And what are you smoking? The regular Jacob's Ladder.

Oh, very nice. So where does the Rose of Sharon, where does that name come from? Well, it has multiple meanings for us as a brand. Most importantly, it is a biblical reference, Song of Solomon, I am the Rose of Sharon, I am the lily of the valley.

Okay. Most people that follow Southern Draw realize that between my wife and I, on every label, Soli Deo Gloria is on there, which means, of course, glory to God alone. And really, for us, it's about our priorities, keeping our priorities straight. Secondly, the boss lady's name is Sharon.

You know, it is the name of Sharon. And then the third part of the meaning really is all of our core line is named after flowering plants, for example, the Rose of Sharon. And even the band color comes from her Rose of Sharon plant that we took down to Cigar Rings in Nicaragua and they created the color, the Pantone, if you will, for the band. So it's kind of an antebellum looking band, but it has the pink.

And I think we wanted to prove that even us men, we would smoke a cigar with a pink band. Well, it's really good. It's a very good Connecticut shade for sure. So how long have you been married?

20 years. 20 years. This is our 23rd year together and we've had 15 really good ones. That's nice.

Hey, that's better than most. No parole. That's pretty impressive. So when did you meet your wife?

96. 20 years ago. Yeah, 96. Oh, good.

1996. I came out of the military and went back for my master's degree in college at one of the Texas A&M Extension campuses. And there she was, making googly eyes at me. Nice.

Hey, you pursued me, lady, if you hear this podcast. But, you know, I had a cheerleader on my left arm and my right arm. I really was walking tall, you know, after my military. I was kind of svelte.

And she had me. You know, she had me at the first glance, and we've been basically inseparable since. Were you guys in a class together or anything like that? We were not, but we did pass each other on the way to class.

And I actually showed up for class, you know, because I was paying my own way. So I wasn't sleeping through it. The government was not paying like they said they would, but that's okay. Another thing they didn't come through with.

You know, Mike, when they lay out how they're going to pay for things, they forget to tell you, even when you're a civilian, there's still rules you have to follow. I didn't want to follow those rules, I wanted to do what I wanted to do, but it was fate, I guess, you know, she was going through a divorce at the time, and I tell you what, it turned out well, you know, I'm not a catch by any means, but she is. So. You married up?

I did. I went straight to the top. So, you guys are walking down the hall, and like, how does that happen? I mean, you just look, obviously, you know, you stare at each other, but who makes the first move?

Well, I'm going to say she did. Okay, we'll go with that. Yeah, I think it's just us guys- Until she comes on the show, we're going to go with that. Hey, that show will be the one that sets you over the top, by the way, we'll take Jack Taranio down.

No, the reality of it is, it was a glance, it was a glare from her that basically had this sweet innocence, but confidence as well. And, you know, we had seen each other 20 or 30, 40 times, and one day on a very cold January morning, we're at the gym. " But consequently, that day, it was very cold, and of course, after you work out and you walk out in the ice-cold, frigid air, it's kind of not real pleasant. So I gave her a ride home, and it was the beginning of everything, and so she made the first move.

But I was the first one to actually engage, I think. Very nice. She drew him in. That's fantastic.

Amen. She did. So, telecommunications business in Central America, you did that too? I did.

I was blessed enough, I think, coming out of the military that, you know, coming out of intelligence and communication, the same technologies that we used in the late '80s and early '90s in the military We were also commercially patented by a couple of companies, namely a company called Qualcomm, but what it means to you and I as consumers is we were moving from a voice-only network in the cellular industry to packet data or data-driven networks, and that's where my experience and expertise lied. So quickly after I came out of the military, very quickly, I had a phone call from a recruiter in Dallas, Texas, and I became one of the first ten employees of a company called Primeco. Today, that was the basis of what today is known as Verizon Wireless. So I was a network architect.

So basically every modern-day mobile communication or cellular network is based on this technology that we had worked on and created and patented. So that took me down to Central and South America to work on modern wireless communication, bringing in voice and data, but also bringing in economic and educational growth that computers and access to the internet provides, but that's what put me into the tobacco-grown zone. Okay, so when was that, roughly? In 2001 is really when I started spending full-time down in Central and South America, all the way through 2008, 2009.

So, you make some connections in the cigar industry, but like your ground level as far as, you know, Verizon really trying to, or Primeco at that time, being in Central America, I understand that you make some connections, but how the hell do you find yourself from doing something like that, and then jumping into producing your own cigars and becoming into the cigar industry? Well, it doesn't make sense, but... It never does. For eight years, you know, I can tell you that this is I think my 25th year smoking premium cigars, I had the ability throughout my travels, we literally had wireless networks or operations through pretty much every country in Central and South America, which happen to be the same countries that grow the best tobacco for cigars and produce the best cigars.

So, typically our work team would rise with the sun and quit working with the set of the sun, right? It just leaves the whole evening for cigars and conversation. I've never been, I can say, I've always been clean, I've never taken drugs of any kind, and my outlet was the cigars. So just really as an inquisitive engineer, I wanted to learn about aging and fermentation and the process.

But just as an outsider, having the ability to engage with some of the greatest minds, what we call godfathers and kings in this business. We had a lot of people that built cell phone towers. And most of those were Dominican and Cuban, you know, from a hereditary standpoint, and they taught me a lot, but they said, "You know, Robert, my uncle grows tobacco here. My grandfather has one here.

" And then they further convinced me that you have warehouses in every country. " So that was really my indoctrination into tobacco as a whole. Right. So, more on the raw materials portion of it.

Absolutely. Like a broker. Yeah, the intent was to buy raw tobacco, process it. Buy himself tobacco.

Like some gringo knows what he's doing about processing tobacco, but they had me convinced that they could help him. Sure! Just like the Army did with all the stuff they promised. Absolutely, absolutely.

Well, at least this worked out better. You know, we've been blessed, but, you know, how does it convert? " How did we become Southern drawl? The reality of it is, we did very well in my 20s and 30s, and we made a tremendous amount of money.

We had a tremendous amount of assets, but we basically, we, sorry Sharon, I pledged those assets down in the Caribbean Latin America for this business venture we had. And we got defrauded. We got scammed. " And she really didn't, she didn't get angry.

What she said was, let me ask you a question. What's your three favorite things in the world? And I said, don't you think that's irrelevant? But this is kind of how it was put to me.

And I said, well, I said, you know. It's not really important to distance. Right, I just lost everything. Right, we have nothing.

But the truth is, you know, since we're on a podcast, I can say this. You know, in my mind, I'm like, I love fishing. I love cigars. And I really enjoy sex.

And her response in a roundabout way is, you know, you're not really good at two of those things. so you know i sit in austin texas and uh i'm sitting with a buddy of mine that's a very good marketing guy and back of a beer napkin which is just like the one sitting in front of me with a sharpie he said if you had a cigar company what would it be called and i said really a pay up you know play on words here but southern draw one half about hospitality and the people and the simplicity And the other part, take draw, but drop the L, so we don't just look like we're dumb and slow, right? But the concept of a perfect cigar, right? And I said, I really want to share the culture of what I've learned.

These hardworking, humble people where most of them don't even smoke cigars because they can't afford them, but they've created an art form that I think is a great vehicle to deal with life's problems. You know, to have a conversation cigar to me was the only outlet I had. And Sharon, God bless her, goes, you know, if you're in, I'm in, but you don't get to make all the decisions anymore. So, it was a 50/50 partnership.

A little bit of a leash on you probably was a good idea. You should have negotiated 51/49. Well, consequently, we did. She got 51, I got 49.

There you go, there you go. But up front, she said, "Listen, I'm going to handle customer service. I'm going to handle distribution. I'm going to do what I do best, which is spend time with people.

You go try to blend some cigars, you can try to source and handle the production and the packaging and you get your butt on the road and sell them. Right. So that's how it started. As Simon Lund said at Cigar Journal, we were born a failure.

That's very nice. So how many cigars do you produce, I don't know, annually, Ralph? This year we're going to probably release about a million cigars. Ah, that's a pretty good number.

2 million cigars being sold, because we really are hands-on in what we do and how we do it, from the production to the packaging to the distribution, we don't have, we don't outsource any of that, other than the contract production with AJ Fernandez and company, but, you know, we want to have a sustainable growth number, but, you know, good It's good for us. People like Skip Martin talks reality with us and said, you know, you've got to pay attention to some of these details. So we've been blessed with a lot of mentors in the business that have helped us, and we've avoided some pitfalls. But, you know, a million cigars this year would be a good year for us.

Yeah, that's an impressive number for sure. Man, you kind of nailed everything that's on this card so far. Yeah, that was everything. You crushed it.

So, help me here. We're 16 minutes. 16 minutes. I knew it was going to happen.

It was going to go back. It was like a blitzkrieg of questions. Well, I guess we can just jump to the questionnaire, and then we can always dabble back in. Okay, maybe something will lead into something else.

Yeah. All right. I got a feeling that he's going to answer these questions relatively quickly, too, though. Like, he's got his shit together.

All right. We have four questions we ask everybody. Same four questions. So, have you listened to the podcast?

No, you have not. Okay, so no. Okay, good. This will be the first time I hear these questions.

Seriously, have you listened to the podcast? I have. But I don't recall the questions. Okay.

So, it's new to me. All right. First question. What one person, living or dead, would you like to share a cigar with?

Wow. You know, I think it would probably be my wife's grandfather. And this is a gentleman that we refer to as The Oak. You know, he was a very solid guy.

He was an attorney at the University of Texas grad. I had the pleasure of drinking a couple of Grolsch beers with him before he passed of pancreatic cancer, but I never shared my passion for cigars, and I think he had such intellect and knowledge and a calm that I would have enjoyed, and, you know, there's been a lot of people before that, but I think at that point in my life, having somebody that stable and that wise would have been a fun guy to sit down with and have a conversation, because I think the conversation would have been a lot deeper than just what we had over popping the ceramic top off of Roche Beer. Right. So wait, now I'm going to pause you there.

No, no, go ahead. So now, you say that your company is all about, you know, hospitality and, you know, faith and family, obviously, but with hospitality being a major aspect of your image, that requires you being on the road a lot, right? Without question. So how many, how long are you on the road, per se, per year?

Well, 2017, maybe it was unique because of our growth, but I was on the road for 324 days last year. So that's got to be tough in itself. I mean, very daunting on your family, as well as, you know, the sacrifices that you have to make, right? I would like to say that I missed or needed, but I don't know if that's the case.

My wife's very strong. We still have one son at home that is Jacob's Ladder that you're smoking, and they're very independent. They also realize that the sacrifice is necessary and while I'm on the road they're doing as much behind the scenes as I am. I may be the face of the company but we've got other friends and family that are involved heavily.

It is, but as I mentioned earlier today, I don't think it's beneficial for us just to have reps open new accounts and really focus on our growth. We need to go establish our own relationships. We need to see that our brand, albeit very conservative as opposed to many, obviously we're faith-based. We want to make sure that both the retailer and our brand is mutually excited about it.

We don't want our cigars sitting on the shelves. And again, more reference to Brother Skip Martin and Michael, which is you don't need a lot of accounts. You just need accounts that believe in you and you believe in and that you can support. So manage it well.

So, you know, being on the road is the joy. You know, it's the conversations. You know, this morning, for example, I had an hour appointment that lasted three hours because a couple of customers came in and one of them was a Vietnam vet and I just wanted to spend some time with him. So we just kind of abide by the rule that the most important person in the world is the one in front of you at that moment.

And if you're going to have a conversation and a cigar with them, we might dig into the box and end up with two or three, right? So you're just not going to be in a hurry. Man, that makes all the difference in this industry, right? It does.

Listening to people. And too often you see that guys are egotistical and full of themselves and all they want to do is talk about themselves when a lot of it's bullshit, you know? So it's kind of nice to see that you do the exact opposite of that, right? You mentioned that your one cigar is named after your wife, the Rose of Sharon.

You just mentioned Jacob Ladder is your son. Do all the cigars have meanings, the names? Without question. And I'll elaborate on Jacob's Ladder again.

Biblical reference. The reference to the path or the ladder between heaven and hell where angels descend and ascend. " And again, the Jacobs Ladder is not only Ethan Jacob, but it is also a flowering plant that happens to have those same colors. It's just something that has meaning to us.

Now, moving forward, you'll find that before August 8, 2016, Southern Draw actually produced and, I guess, set a predicate with the FDA for 56 blends and the tobaccos. And that's because leading up to those DMing regs, we did a lot of homework, and we want to make sure we had toys. That doesn't mean we'll ever need them. What it means is, depending on what happens, with our partner, with AJ, maybe other people will need those blends, and maybe they'll adopt the message, and maybe it'll help them as well continue to grow.

But the original two blends for Southern Draw, the Kudzu and the Firethorn, those were really homages or respect to my prior military service, the influences in my life. I mentioned earlier today, this is the weekend of the Masters, right, a tradition unlike any other, but I served quite a bit of time in Fort Gordon, Georgia, in Augusta, as did my own father, but I also served with a sergeant major that also served with my father, and the Firethorn is a reference to the 15th hole at Augusta National, which is where this gentleman had his private retirement ceremony, and I will always remember his influence in my life, and watching over me, Deer and Armageddon. So there's a reference there, and again, the Firethorn is also a flowering plant, which is where Augusta gave it its name. The original blend, kudzu, it's comical.

A lot of people in the South know what kudzu is. It's that invasive vine, you know, that we brought over in the late 1800s to handle soil erosion. But most people, it was also dubbed the weed that invaded the South. Wee to the south.

Well, that weed now goes from South Florida all the way to almost Maine. It goes all the way to Washington. It goes to California. You can pretty much see that presence anywhere.

You can't kill it. Right. But more importantly, it's invasive. But it grows.

When I came back after almost six years international deployments and I came back to Georgia, I had a little bit of time to go from Georgia to Texas on a military leave. And when you pull out of the gates at Fort Gordon and you start heading west to Texas along the interstate, that kudzu is everywhere. It's everywhere. It's over old gas stations and buses and cars.

And if you stopped long enough on the side of the road to change your tire, it would probably crawl over the top of you. So invasive or not, it was still home. So, you know, you've seen pictures in history where people come back, let's say the Iranian, the Iranian hostages kiss the ground when they land, right? Kudzu, for me, was the kiss of the ground to say, invasive or not, I'm still home.

, and it was a little bit of respect for that, so it's odd, and we laughed because our brand started in the South, Southern Draw, and we're now in 45 states, I think we're in like 12 or 15 countries, so the whole concept of Kudzu really has been reincarnated here with a crazy name, Cigar, So how old is your son? He's 17. 17. And it's your youngest?

No, we have a 23-year-old daughter as well. And she's married and moved on and doesn't play a role in what we do, but maybe she'll come back home someday. Right, so two in comparison to seven. Absolutely.

Lesson learned, my friend. Easier manageable number. At seven they outnumber you considerably. But I figure if you have four, you know, then they start to kind of get old enough where they can kind of help manage and help out and you kind of delegate authority.

You know? Your children are young, right? My children are young. Yeah, that doesn't happen.

Yeah, that doesn't happen. That's not the way it takes. That expectation will change. Yeah, it will.

Yeah. I can feel, I mean, they don't let me sleep already. Well, you'd get to sleep more, but as far as helping, well, that doesn't. Yeah, they don't.

No, no, no. Maybe they didn't beat them enough. Well, hey, there might be the clue to it all, right? Because my parents didn't hesitate, but they did what they thought was right for that time.

Nowadays, could you imagine what would happen if I got beat with a paddle with holes with chicken wire in the middle of it? Right. You know, it just can't happen. Is that what happened to you?

Oh, come on now. I mean, yeah. And you seem okay. You don't seem okay?

I don't know if I'm okay, but I probably deserved it, too. I don't think any of us are okay. For one, we're in the cigar industry. For two, you know, but the fact of the matter is...

My mother had a belt. She was like Indiana Jones with this thing, just whoosh. Yeah? Yeah, it was terrible.

That's nice. Only had to do me once. Yeah? Just the one time?

My brother, I think he's still getting hit today. And did you clean up after yourself? Yes. And did you take care of it?

Toilet seat down. She lived in a house full of men. Toilet seat was always down. You clean up after yourself.

Oh, no shit. So the belt works. It works. And I tell you what, that's why every cigar shop should have a sign in their bathroom that said it's a $5 fine for leaving this toilet seat down.

Right now, we're still dominated by male consumers. Leave the toilet seat up when you go into a cigar shop. That's just my rule. That's like the biggest issue that we have here is, man, the fucking bathroom is always, you know, you try and stay on top of it and you try and see, but I don't understand what these guys do, they just walk in, I think they just piss on the floor.

While you're drinking beer, smoking cigars, it's, the game's on, you don't want to miss anything, you know, you're in a hurry, you're in a hurry, you barely step in the door, take care of business, you're back up. But the bathroom looks so clean at the beginning of the day, but you're unzipping on the way in, you know, unzipping up on the way out, it's not their fault. Be happy to make it in the bathroom. Fair enough, fair enough.

All right, moving on. Are we at question two now? Yes, we can go to question two. All right, question two.

What is your favorite cigar? My favorite cigar, most people just say the one in my hand, but my favorite cigar truly is the Rose of Sharon. Is it sentimental? Maybe.

To me, it's a very classic blend. It is a Connecticut, but it's, to me, with that Piloto Cabano that's in there, I can have it any time, in any size. It is sentimental to me, but it's something I smoke probably the most of, and it's ours. Again, if I wanted to reach across the aisle, I would say that Skip and Michael's Neanderthal is one of my favorites.

Actually, I love the Fable. I smoke a lot of Fable. Hey! Woohoo!

First time that was mentioned. No, I've smoked it a lot since it came out. And, you know, if I go to the factory and Esteban's there, I'll trade him kudzus for Fables all day long. Nice.

And he enjoys, I think, the Jacob's Ladder, so he likes the fuller-bodied, but, you know, my favorite is when I'm on the road and I see all these brands and the people working their ass off, especially the people that helped Southern Draw helped us avoid the pitfalls, they all have some good cigars and have good tobaccos, and, you know, obviously I love some of the things AJ does as well, but I like what he does for us more than I like what he does for himself. If it's Sumatra, which there's not a lot of them out there, I'll reach for the Leaf Bosque or Sumatra. It's one of my favorites. Corojo, I like traditional tobaccos.

I'll go with that new JRE, that Aladino. I love that cigar. So it kind of changes. But for the everyday go-to, and I smoke 8, 10, 12, 15 a day, the Rose of Sharon, well, if we're blending, right, if we're doing an event, it could be a long, long day.

But I can smoke those one after another and I won't look back. There's one sticking out of your pocket, just in case. Yeah, that's the new Lancero. You might want to give that a pull.

That's the rose Lancero that just got released. Oh, that's an excellent weasel tactic. Wasn't that great? Yeah, that worked out well.

Thank you very much. All right, next question. One piece of advice. How does that go?

What's the best piece of advice anybody ever gave you? Yeah, what's the best piece of advice anyone ever gave you? You know, you were so good off the cuff for a while, you know, like, normally when I see him asking these... His eyes are so blue.

They match his shirt exactly. He's married, he's taken. I understand that, but he's just not used to it. I've been on the road for a while now.

Yeah, it's something. Now the best advice really is, it just comes down to principles for me, which was through all discussions, through everything in life, when you're having a conversation, establish the expectation, diminish disappointment. Really say what you mean, really articulate your message, because then you have the right to have an expectation. I think it's advice that came from a professor, but it was on the side, you know, one of those where you didn't turn your paper in at college on time and he asked you to come to his office, but he really said that's what you have to learn to do.

If you're going to be an effective communicator, which to me is everything, right? Establish the expectation, diminish disappointment, and that way both parties understand. And I think it's great advice, and we try to do that. So who's the professor that told you that?

His name was Faulkner, Dr. Faulkner, at then East Texas State University, head of English and Literature. " Well, I don't know how you get paid as a writer, but I was all about, I feel like I over-communicate, and his point was maybe over-communicate things that are unnecessary. Communicate the things, be very, very specific when you do that.

So, Dr. Faulkner, here's to you, brother. It's been 30 years, but I still remember. There you go.

That's great. All right. What one fictitious person would you like to share a cigar with? Oh, wow.

Could be from a movie, a book, a comic book? No, well, you know, I'm just going to go right to it, and you've probably had this answer before, but I'm going straight into Scarface, me and Al Pacino, you know? When he's not high on coke, you know, but like, you know, when he's had a few drinks, and he's just talking matter-of-fact, you know, and just sit down. But he's a Cuban guy, you know, it would have been great, but fictitious or not, we've all met people like that, but the reality is, he emulates that image, and that would have been cool to sit there, you know, sit there in the nightclub and have a cigar with the guy while you watch everybody acting a fool, but he, it would have been, it would have been, would have been quite a conversation, I think.

Very good. So are you a reader, too? Do you read a lot of books? I used to read a lot.

Right now I read FDA warning plans. That really don't make much sense. I don't read as much. I used to read a lot.

Typically I would read a biography or autobiography, and then the next book I would read a leadership book. But anybody that follows me knows that right now the only book that really matters to me is the Bible because I'm trying to stay focused. I'm not trying to sound cliche. We have a brand, and we have a family, and I need to be accountable, and I've learned that to get my bubble back in the middle, just to spend a few minutes a day, I've read a lot of things, but that's the one thing that I know that if I take my time to do, and I take my time to share it, there's other people that are relying on it.

I'm not a preacher, and I'm not an ambassador of any means, I guess, but our brand, we're held accountable for what we do every day. So I'm going to sit here and have a yingling with you, but the reality of it is, you know, those words mean more to me and more can be gained from reading those words than anything else I could read, I think. Right. So aside from the Bible, what book do you think would be the most influential in your life?

Who Moved My Cheese. Who Moved My Cheese. And it's a quick read. You can sit on the toilet and read the thing.

But Spencer Levine, I tell you what, it's just one of those books, classic about leadership, but it really gets into how we interact with one another. Right. And how, you know, how we can handle ourselves and our demeanor and our language, but I think it's just a simple book that, you know, a fifth grader to a 50-year-old can read and really gain from it, but it's a simple book, but I would recommend it for everybody. Right.

Awesome. Well, dude, we appreciate you coming out and coming all the way now out from Texas and coming on the show and hanging out with us and burning a couple cigars. We're going to go hang out and burn some more cigars. You can have some more beer.

And, you know, this is the first time I've actually kind of met you in person, so I appreciate you. I appreciate you. He's the same guy that you see online. Right.

I mean, we've had a couple interactions through social media and stuff, but you're the same guy online as you are in person. That's great. Which is kind of funny, too, because on podcasts, like, I've had people come in, or we've had people come in, and you get this one demonstration of who they are on the outside, and then you stick a microphone in front of them, and then they're a totally different person. They just shut down.

" Well, at least the camera's not on. But I do appreciate the invite, you guys making time, giving kind of my last minute trip out, but it's always a pleasure, and you know, I like to see what you guys do, I like obviously what you're doing with Skip and Michael, because I believe that they are doing things the right way, and I've learned a lot from them, and you know, Mike, every day you post, and it's creative, and it's fun, and it makes it worth, it makes it worth, you know, clicking on and liking and following, so I kind of, I'm always interested in seeing what's next. And, you know, for me, again, having a cigar in a conversation, whether it's on a podcast or a video or just at a shop is what it's all about, I think that's why we're in the business, and, you know, I enjoy this part of it, so I would have come from Anchorage, Alaska if you'd invited me. Oh, well, thank you.

It's a hell of a commute. It would be. It's a lot warmer here, though. Depending upon the season, it could be a lot of daytime there or a lot of nighttime there.

Absolutely. You can grow 100-pound heads of cabbage, though, it's good. All right, well, that's pretty much it, right? That's it.

All right, thank you very much, everybody. Thank you, Robert. Talk to you later. All right, folks.

That's it. Show's over. If you like what we're doing, please tell your friends about us. Leave feedback.

We always like to hear if you like the show or not, or if you have any suggestions for guests that we might possibly bring on at a later date. You can find us on our Facebook page at A Cigar Hustlers Podcast, or you can follow us on Instagram at Cigar Hustlers Podcast. Thanks for listening, but get the fuck back to work. Do what you can.

Show Notes

This weeks Origin Series keeps rolling with Mr Robert Holt from Southern Draw Cigars sat down with us and explained his company and personal values of Hospitality, Faith and Family.

Learn how this US Army Veteran used all his contacts and experience in the IT industry to start his successful Cigar Company!

We would love to hear from you with your feedback or guest suggestions on our FB fan page A Cigar Hustlers Podcast or you can follow Mike1 on IG @cigarhustler or Mike2 @floridacigarlub_mike.

The shows IG can be found @cigarhustlerspodcast