The Art of Excellence

Dave Perkins is the Founder and former CEO of High West Distillery, a craft whiskey producer. He sold the company in 2016 after 12 years to Constellation Brands for $160 million. He had a successful career in biotech marketing prior to that. He lives in Park City, Utah. Some interesting insights from this episode: Learn how his biotech background prepared him for building a whiskey business from scratch. He moved to Utah to start the company despite the state's tight liquor laws. He chose to become a distiller, not just a blender, despite the much larger investment and longer waiting period. Learn how good contingency planning can help mitigate risk in a startup. In addition to hard work, good planning and a distinctive product, serendipity played a key role in his success. Excellence is taking pride in your work and giving it your best.

Rich Wilson is the fastest American skipper to race solo around the world. He completed the Vendee Globe 27,000 mile solo round-the-world yacht race this year in 107 days. At 66 years old, he was also the oldest skipper to complete the race. Rich is the founder of the SitesAlive Foundation, a non-profit platform to connect K12 classrooms to adventures and expeditions around the world. He has a degree in mathematics and an MBA from Harvard and a Masters in interdisciplinary science from MIT. He currently resides in the Boston area.

Morris Robinson is a world-renowned bass opera singer. He has regularly performed at the Metropolitan Opera as well as opera houses all over the world. He is also a highly regarded concert singer and has performed with many of the well-known symphony orchestras across the United States. He is a graduate of the Citadel and currently resides in Atlanta with his wife and son.

Doug Ammons is a scientific editor and researcher, a business owner, an accomplished author and filmmaker and a classical guitarist. But what he's most known for is being an extreme kayaker. He's run several first descents in the US and overseas and soloed multiple challenging class v runs that most people would never touch, most famously the Grand Canyon of the Stikine. Because of his many incredible kayaking accomplishments, Outside Magazine has named him one of the ten greatest adventurists over the last century. He has degrees in mathematics and physics and has a PhD in Psychology.

Kevin Gillespie is a chef, author and media celebrity. He owns two of Georgia's hottest restaurants: Gunshow and Revival. Gunshow has been on GQ's list of "12 Most Outstanding Restaurants". In 2015 he was a semi-finalist for the James Beard Best Chef in the Southeast award. He was also a semi-finalist for the James Beard Rising Star Chef of the Year award. He is the author of two cookbooks: Fire in my Belly and Pure Pork Awesomeness. He was a finalist on the sixth season of Bravo's Top Chef cooking show and was voted the Fan Favorite for the season.

Marquis Grissom is a former professional baseball player. He led the National League in stolen bases in 1991 and '92, was a member of the National League All Star team in 1993 and '94 and won four consecutive Golden Gloves. He joined the Atlanta Braves in 1995 where he helped them win their first and only World Series. In all, he played 17 years in the majors, hitting 227 homers, stealing 429 bases and finishing with a batting average of .272. Today he runs the Marquis Grissom Baseball Association, a foundation he started which teaches kids how to perform at their highest levels, both on and off the baseball field.

Jay Faison is the Founder and Chairman of SnapAV, a high growth technology company that designs and distributes audio-video products. SnapAV has been on the Inc 500 List for several years and was acquired by General Atlantic in 2013 for around $200 million. He is also the Founder and CEO of ClearPath Foundation, whose mission is to accelerate conservative clean energy solutions. Jay has received many accolades including the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year for the Southeast region award and Politico's Top 50 visionaries transforming American politics.

Steve has been CEO of the Atlanta Hawks since 2014. After just his first year with the team, the Hawks led the league in annual attendance gains and set single-season franchise records for retail sales, sellouts and season ticket memberships. Prior to joining the Hawks, Steve was the President of Turner Entertainment Networks where he oversaw the programming, marketing and strategy for TBS, TNT and several other prominent networks. Prior to Turner, he was at Coke where he served in several capacities, most recently as the Vice President of Sports and Entertainment marketing.

Mandy-Rae is an accomplished freediver based in Vancouver, British Columbia. She holds 7 freediving world records and 13 national records. She owns Performance Freediving International where she teaches freediving courses to the general public.

Michael Coles is a successful entrepreneur, investor, advisor and community leader. He co-founded The Great American Cookie Company and grew it into the largest franchisor of cookie stores with 350 locations and sales of over $100 million when he sold the company. He was also the CEO of Caribou Coffee which became a publicly traded company. He is a big supporter of Kennesaw State University, whose business program is fittingly named the Michael J Coles College of Business.