Working with Distilled Living

Luxury Bourbon, Spirits & Lifestyle Experiences

Thank you for thinking of working with Distilled Living!

We’re a team of passionate, knowledgeable, skilled and experienced professionals working in the luxury space for Bourbon, mixology, KY tourism, virtual events and SO much more.


About Distilled Living:

We are a premium experiences, events and consulting company with over 7 years of proven work in the spirits sector and with clients at all levels of the beverage alcohol, hospitality, retail and events industries.

Examples of our work including case studies and existing clients are described throughout this site.Additionally, our company and founder have been featured in Maxim, Forbes, Southern Living, American Whiskey Magazine, GoodMorningAmerica.com, NBCNews.com, Washington Post, the official Kentucky DerbyÂŽ Youtube channel, many local news shows plus Bourbon Lens, The Bourbon Review, Bourbon Pursuit, and more.

Standard Services:

We offer many services at standard rates including Guided Tastings, Elite Mixology / Showtending™️, One-Stop Tours℠, Tourism Planning, Virtual Events, Private Barrel Program and many others which are explored in detail on this website.

Customized Consulting:

If your project needs are not met by one of our current standard service offerings or requires customized consulting, please reach out to us with a description of your project, the services requested, a preliminary budget and timeline using the form at the bottom of this page.

Trip Planning Pre-Payment Requirement:

At Distilled Living, we take pride in offering highly personalized and meticulously curated Bourbon-themed trip planning services for our valued clients. Our passion is to create unique, memorable, and stress-free experiences tailored to your specific needs and preferences. As a result, we invest a significant amount of time, effort, and our exclusive, hard-earned resources into crafting the perfect itinerary just for you.

To maintain the high level of quality and professionalism that our clients have come to expect, we kindly request payment before embarking on any trip planning work. Here’s why:

  1. Value and Expertise: Our team possesses extensive knowledge and experience in the travel industry, which allows us to create distinctive itineraries that cater to your individual desires. By paying for our services upfront, you’re not only investing in our expertise, but also acknowledging the value we bring to your travel experience.
  2. Commitment and Accountability: Receiving payment beforehand establishes a mutually beneficial relationship between us and our clients. This arrangement ensures that we remain committed to providing top-notch services, while also holding our clients accountable for their investment in our work.
  3. Resource Allocation: Crafting bespoke itineraries requires a significant investment of time and resources. Upfront payment allows us to allocate these resources efficiently and ensures that we can dedicate our full attention to each client’s unique needs.
  4. Protecting Intellectual Property: Our customized itineraries are the product of our team’s hard work and creativity, and we consider them our intellectual property. By requiring payment before planning work begins, we protect our proprietary ideas and strategies from being replicated or misused without proper compensation.
  5. Sustainability and Fairness: As a small business, maintaining a healthy cash flow is essential for our long-term sustainability. Receiving payment upfront helps us cover our operating costs and fairly compensate our dedicated team members for their time and expertise.
  6. Personalized Service Guarantee: The upfront payment model allows us to maintain a manageable client base, ensuring that we can devote the necessary time and attention to each individual. This way, we can continue to guarantee the high-quality, personalized service that has become synonymous with Distilled Living.
  7. Meeting Client Budget Needs: Receiving payment upfront allows us to have a clear understanding of your budget constraints from the beginning. This transparency enables us to curate your trip with cost considerations in mind, ensuring that the final itinerary aligns with your financial expectations. By working within your budget, we can create a remarkable travel experience that is both enjoyable and affordable, without compromising on quality or satisfaction.

Requiring payment before commencing trip planning work is a crucial aspect of our business model. This practice ensures that we can continue to deliver exceptional, tailor-made travel experiences for our clients while sustaining our business and upholding our commitment to quality and professionalism. We appreciate your understanding and look forward to crafting your dream KY Bourbon vacation!

Blind Proposals:

We require formal RFPs for inquiries requesting proposals. We do not respond to requests which are vague, especially where the project itself is the development of a new business or venture, or come in the form of “tell us how you can help us”, “pitch your services to us” or “we don’t know what we need” requests.

(In other words, we do not provide proposals for our services where we would be required to spend research time to determine the nature, scope, budget and timeline of the project or do other substantial business development work on the project in order to produce the proposal.)

If you need our help with figuring out your project, start with the Project Viability Review Service below and as part of this service we will assist you in building a formal RFP, which we will then respond to with a proposal for our services for the project itself.

Project Viability Review Service:

For general project feedback requests, we offer a Project Viability Review service where we analyze your project and provide a written feedback and guidance report produced by our subject matter expert staff. This service has a $2,500 retainer (10 hours at $250/hr) which we require to be paid in full prior to scheduling any calls or meetings including discovery meetings.

As a result, due to the high volume of requests that we receive (several per week) to review or participate in Bourbon-related projects, event development and new brand creation we are unable to offer a discounted rate on this service to review small projects or offer one-off feedback meetings.


We believe that every project, no matter how big or small, deserves our full attention and dedication to delivering the best possible results.


Unpaid Work Policy:

As professionals, we are committed to providing high-quality services to our clients, and our time and expertise are valuable assets.

Therefore, we do not provide any of our services on a free/unpaid, pro bono or spec (speculative) structure.

This includes:

  • “Pick your brain,” “getting your thoughts on,” feedback, advice requests, idea generation or other brainstorming-type calls and meetings
  • Coffee meetings
  • Requests for a proposal or pitch on “how our services can help you” (see Blind Proposals above)
  • Trials or demos of our services
  • Services provided in exchange for exposure

We do not offer a deferred payment on our services pending success or profitability of new business ventures. (“Help us get profitable and then we’ll pay you” arrangements.)

We also do not participate in partnership, commission-based, “sweat equity,” work based capital or similar profit-sharing arrangements. We do not fundraise on behalf of nor refer our clients or investor partners to other business ventures on a finder’s fee or referral fee basis.

This also includes requests for speaking at club meetings, Bourbon enthusiast gatherings and similar events – our service is our unique, professional presentations which we charge for.

Just like you, we’re enthusiastic about Bourbon, cocktails, tourism and the luxury lifestyle, but that doesn’t mean we’ll help you build your business, product, platform or enthusiast group for free.


Being paid for our professional services is how we stay in business and continue to create value for our employees, clients, guests and others.

😎 🥃


Charity & Fundraiser Support:

We love to help our communities and we provide a variety of charity and fundraiser support services.

Distilled Living LLC is not a licensed professional solicitor in the state of Kentucky and we do not directly or indirectly solicit contributions for or on behalf of charitable organizations. Our services are designed to support charities in their own fundraising efforts through event management, unique experiences and Bourbon industry relations.

We receive a high number of requests for donations and are unfortunately only able to fulfill a small number each year. If you would like to request consideration for a donation, please email us at team@distilled-living.com

Press Releases & Industry Updates:

We’re always excited to learn about new businesses, brands, products and other ventures in the Bourbon, KY Tourism and luxury lifestyle sectors. Please feel free to send press releases and other information to us at team@distilled-living.com. We typically do not offer meetings to learn about new developments in these areas but may follow up with selected ventures based on our interests. 

Please note we are not currently promoting new ventures, project launches, press releases, etc. on our website and social media but may do so in the future. Requests for recommendations, endorsements or industry networking connections for new ventures first requires a Project Viability Review as described above.

Rush Needs:

We normally do not submit formal proposals in response to RFPs or other consulting requests with less than a two week lead.

Project Viability Review requests with less than a two week lead time to start have an additional +50% rush fee.

Scheduling standard experiences (guided tasting, craft bartending, etc.) does not have a rush fee although we often sell out under a two week lead.


Again, thank you for thinking of us for your project. If you are ready to get started with us, please reach out via the form below.

– The Team at Distilled Living LLC

For our inquiries for our standard services such as guided tastings and other presentations, mixology, KY tourism, virtual events, etc., please click here.

Distilled Living LLC Project Consulting Inquiry Form:

Project Consulting Inquiry Form
(This can also be a date range.)
(This can also be a date range.)