July 28, 2025 • 54 mins
We dive deep into the powerful mission of Last Dram Standing, a nonprofit using whiskey as a vehicle to build community and honor fallen service members. Corey shares his journey from combat veteran to nonprofit founder and how he's turning personal pain into purpose through meaningful connection.
• Founded during COVID when Corey was seeking community after military service
• Uses whiskey not as a means of consumption but as a catalyst for meaningful human connection
• Created to bridge the gap between veterans and civilians through shared experiences
• Honors fallen service members through special bottle releases with proceeds going to charities
• First bottle selected honored First Lieutenant Levi Barnard, killed by suicide bomber in Iraq
• Offers unique experiences like barrel selection trips to Kentucky distilleries
• Structured as nonprofit to clearly communicate their mission isn't about profit
• Breaking the group into chapters allows for more intimate, supportive connections
• Focuses on creating safe spaces for vulnerable conversations about mental health
• Encourages veterans to acknowledge struggles and seek help from community
If you're struggling or know someone who is, reach out. The fact that you're acknowledging it is the hardest step. From there, seek help, find your community, and discover your purpose. Follow Last Dram Standing on social media @TheLastDramStanding on all platforms.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Warriors fall in.
It's time for formation.
Welcome back to the MorningFormation podcast, folks, where
we dive deep into the stories ofsurvivability, resilience and
real-world transformation.
I'm your host, kp, and todaywe're uncorking a powerful
conversation with a man whosenonprofit mission is raising
awareness one dram at a time.
Corey, from Last Dram Standing,joins us to talk about service,
(00:22):
loss healing and how the singlepoor can serve a purpose far
greater than itself.
Corey, thank you for joining meon the Morning Formation today.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Absolutely, man.
It's a pleasure and it's been along time since you and I got
to connect and you know you'reone of my favorite people.
So this is I'm super excited tobe here and super, super proud
of everything you're creatingand super happy to get into a
little bit about what we'redoing over here and and tell a
little bit of our story.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
You know you've always been a very purposeful,
uh, efficient and effectiveprofessional, and so I I've
always highly respected you forthat and, um, everything that
you've done with this nonprofitso far, everything that I'm
seeing, I am so impressed.
Uh, even today, looking at yourbackground and just your, your
visuals, I can't tell you likehow much I am like like kind of
(01:11):
an envy.
I'm like, wow, I want to belike that someday.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
I appreciate that.
It's uh, I think we're.
We're very similar in the factthat when we do something, we
try to do it right.
We have we do it with andintentionality, and I don't ever
want to show up with less thanmy best.
And you know, I have twodaughters and I try to emulate
that.
I don't I don't think I canteach them through telling them
what to do, but through myexample.
So it's the little things thatyou do.
(01:35):
When you tell someone you'regoing to be there, you'd be
there on time, you'd be thereearly.
When you're, when you'reworking with someone, when
you're working with someone, youshow up with everything you've
got and you do your best so thatthey want to come back and work
with you again.
It's the little things.
I mess up and I slip up all thetime and I don't get it right,
but at least I try and that'ssomething I you know every day.
I just try to show up a littlebit better than I did the day
before.
(01:55):
So that's all that is Right.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
You know, and I've often talked to veterans and
just people that I know ingeneral, who mess up and fail
and they're embarrassed about it, and I always tell them hey,
there's nothing to beembarrassed about as long as you
walk away as a better man.
And failing forward is a realthing and I can certainly relate
to what you're saying.
But let's get into thenonprofit.
So those that may not know whata dram is, tell us what a dram
is and what is the last dramstanding and how did this entire
(02:27):
mission come to life?
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Yeah, absolutely.
So.
It was somewhat organic, youknow, a couple of years ago.
First I'll start with what adram is.
A dram is just a pour, you know, a glass, right.
And so in this modern day, whenyou're looking to name yourself
other than you know your name,which is these Corys and my last
name, no one can pronounce.
So I wanted to come up withsomething.
There's very limited optionsand as I was kind of scouring
(02:52):
the Internet for what wasavailable, you know the last man
standing is a little bit tonguein cheek, but it's a little bit
about just, you know, lookingback at our history, the good
parts of being man enough toface your fears and your
failures, and you just do thehard thing first wake up in the
morning to put your best footforward.
So there's a little bit of anhomage to that.
It's a comedy show with the guyfrom Home Improvement, which I
(03:18):
watched as a kid quitereligiously, but yeah, that's
kind of where the name came from.
I found something that kind ofhad a little bit of tongue in
cheek but paid a little homageto what I was looking to do.
But the actual nonprofit camefrom the fact that I was looking
for a little bit of community.
I found myself, you know,trying to engage with people,
(03:39):
and as you get older that getsreally, really tough, and I am
an introvert at heart, so for meit's even more difficult, but I
wanted to.
You know, it was during theCOVID times and I didn't feel
like I was getting a sense ofcommunity.
And, you know, the more I growand get older, I find that
that's really one of the keys toa healthy and happy life is
community.
(03:59):
So you build a really strong,hopeful community with your
family and your close-knitfriends, and then I think you
should expand and challengeyourself a little bit to do
things that are a little bitoutside your comfort zone.
So in an endeavor to do that, Ifound this whiskey club that had
just started and it was startedby a gentleman named Ethan Pope
and he was like four or fivepeople strong, and so, you know,
(04:20):
I got a little uncomfortableand, you know, I joined the
group and I ended up hosting oneof the first events.
It's a whiskey club wherepeople from the northern
Virginia area get together and,just, you know, hang out and
share a pour, share some storiesand use the dram not as
consumption but as community.
I don't look at the whiskeyclub as a club of consumption,
but rather a club of communityand bringing people together,
(04:43):
and I think it's a reallyimportant distinction.
I think whiskey serves justthat single purpose to bring
people together for camaraderieand to tell stories similar to
what we used to do in themilitary.
So it started there and thenthe group blew up.
It was remarkable, you know,sometimes you just hit a chord
and as the club blew up, youknow, we started to say, okay,
(05:04):
if we have this opportunity,maybe we should do a little bit
more.
And we started talking about itand ended up ultimately
deciding that we wanted to usethis group as an opportunity to
give back and leave a legacybehind.
And so that's what we did.
We started the nonprofit withthe Nova Whiskey Club and over
time we expanded it nationallywith a club called the Cask
Collective, which is a singlebarrel organization where we go
(05:28):
out and select single barrelsand use the proceeds of that to
give back to different charities.
We've given back primarily toveteran charities, but we don't
limit ourselves to veterancharities.
We look for where we can havethe greatest impact and support
the community and beyond that wedo something which I'm pretty
proud of.
I mean we can get into a littlebit later, but every year we do
a bottle that honors a fallenservice member and, fortunate
(05:50):
enough and unfortunate enoughfor me, I was able to honor, you
know, my best friend in themilitary when we were in Iraq.
He got hit by a suicide bomb,and so that first bottle that we
ever selected was in honor ofhim, and we did it with one of
our good friends, with Blue BoltSpirits.
It's an NDP, a non-distillingproducer, and he's a Marine, a
(06:10):
current Marine.
He's doing fantastic stuff.
And so we came together andwent down to Mississippi and
selected this amazing barrel anddid it in honor of Levi Barnard
First Lieutenant Levi Barnard,which was just a really, really
amazing opportunity for me toshow just a small part of his
story to the world, and it kindof blew up from there, and then
that's it.
(06:31):
And so now we're just lookingfor ways to partner with
different organizations in thecommunity.
We're going to do something atthe Army-Navy game, hopefully
next year with Travis ManionFoundation.
So we're just looking at allkinds of opportunities to
support, you know, not only theveteran community but any
important charities.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
Yeah, I certainly feel like Operation Iraqi
Freedom and Operation EnduringFreedom is so far in a rearview
mirror.
A lot of people have kind offorgotten about it and it's
pretty sad to say that.
I remember a time where eachand every day they would come
out with a list of fallensoldiers that were dying in Iraq
and Afghanistan.
And you know, for combatveterans like us that sort of
(07:10):
hits home because we were thereat one point in time.
Now, with the nonprofit, whatposition do you serve?
Speaker 2 (07:17):
So I'm actually the president and CEO of the
nonprofit.
So I stepped up.
You know, just had somebusiness background.
I have an MBA.
When I transitioned fromcivilian life to actually when I
was in LA, I went and got myMBA.
But so I decided, you know, wedecided as a team that would be
(07:39):
the best decision.
So we have a board ofcommittees.
Ethan serves as the chiefoperating officer, he's the
founder of the Nova Whiskey Cluband then we co-founded the Cast
Collective and we really lookat it as a partnership.
My title may be president, Idon't view myself as that.
I view myself as a partner and100% will be forever with him
and kind of accomplishing ourmission.
So, yeah, that's my first timeever being a president, probably
(08:01):
the last, but it's been a funlittle adventure.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
No, it's a great cause, for sure.
Now, from my understanding, itsounds like this idea slowly
came about and was executedslowly.
Or was there a specific eventthat pushed you and your team to
actually execute and create thelast dram standing?
Speaker 2 (08:22):
Yeah, so it was a little bit of a challenge when
we were looking at selecting ourfirst single barrel.
There's so many laws andregulations that surround
operating in the in the spirits,you know community and and
industry, and so while we werelooking down that road, you know
we, you know LLC and thesedifferent things and it felt a
(08:42):
little odd.
You know we were not in thisfor money Never were, never are
going to be.
This is not what our intentionwas and, like I said at the
beginning, I want to do thingspurposefully and with intention
and I wanted to be clear withthe expectations for the group
that this group is never goingto be pushing alcohol and
whiskey and other spirits forthe sole purpose of making
(09:03):
profit.
So we thought the only way wecould broadcast that in the
clearest terms is to work ongetting a nonprofit together,
and so that's kind of whatspurned the idea.
We talked about it, we lookedat the feasibility and there's
precedent for doing thisactually quite a bit of it and
we found that that was going tobe the best option for us.
We're very happy we made thatdecision.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
Yeah, wow, what a journey.
So, corey, tell me how.
Tell me how has your ownjourney influenced the core
message behind this organization?
Speaker 2 (09:35):
Yeah.
So I mean, my journey is longand windy, like most people's.
So I will say, starting kind ofmidway through my journey,
exiting the military, I foundthat it was quite difficult to
find where I fit in, and I wentthrough a really, really rough
(09:56):
time.
Although I didn't know, it wasa rough time during that time.
I think that story is veryfamiliar to a lot of veterans,
where you think you're fine andthen you look back 10 years
later and you realize that thedamage that you had done was
directly related to some of thetrauma that happened while you
were either in combat orwherever.
You know.
These types of things canhappen in any situation, combat
(10:16):
or not.
And so, as I looked back, Irealized how much I could have
used a real community, a groupof people that were not there,
to tell me you know everything'sokay and you know, do whatever
you want, and the world owes youthis and the world owes you
that I needed a strongercommunity of people that I could
share my you know needs and myissues and my challenges with,
(10:40):
and also celebrate some of theaccomplishments and joys in my
life.
And so I found, through thebusyness of my life I've always
wanted to get back to helpingother people find that important
community, and that's reallyreally what drove us to kind of
expand this group.
It's kind of where I foundmyself lacking in life at a
(11:01):
young age, in the formativeyears.
I wanted to provide thatopportunity and, like I said,
this is a very small niche typeof opportunity, so this will
only serve a small subset of agroup of people that are really
interested in bourbon andwhiskey and coming together to
and, like I said, our group isvery much in person.
We want to.
We saw a gap in what peoplewere doing with whiskey.
(11:22):
They were collecting andwaiting in lines and all those
other types of things, and so Iwanted to bring people together
for what we thought was the bestpart of whiskey, and so that's
kind of what drove us to that toserve a little bit of the
community in a way, to bringpeople together and then
hopefully other people are doingthe same thing and finding ways
(11:43):
to get veterans engaged andjust not even just veterans,
just everyone, to find a senseof community and purpose in life
.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
Yeah, community is so important when it comes to
being understood and mentalhealth.
So, you know, on this podcast,I just recently started
switching my direction towardssurvivability, both physical and
mental.
My direction towardssurvivability, both physical and
mental.
So tell me, how does the LastTram Standing support those
silently battling mental healthissues that you mentioned
(12:11):
earlier?
Speaker 2 (12:12):
Yeah, absolutely so we.
I think the greatest part aboutwhat we're doing is, like I
said, we got really big reallyreally quickly, and so we
realized we weren't able toserve the community in the way
that we wanted to.
Ethan and I couldn't talk tothousands of people on a regular
basis.
It's just not possible.
It's not possible to meet thatmany people in a short period of
(12:36):
time, because we have otherresponsibilities, both work and
family, which continue to bepriorities for me.
So we broke our group up intodifferent chapters and we
identified people that wethought were strong pillars in
the community and strong leadersthemselves and kind of embodied
the things that we found to beimportant.
And by doing that, or by kindof separating these groups into
(13:03):
regions, we're able to havethese really, really purposeful
small shares on a regular basiswhere people can come together
and share their challenges.
Like you just talked about,We've had numerous issues where
people came to us with specificchallenges and we were able to
get them the help that they need, and it's through conversation.
I gave a speech the other dayfor Veterans Day and the
(13:25):
conversation revolved around youknow, when I sat down I said
what one thing, Because peopledon't remember much of what you
say.
They really don't.
They remember like two or threethings that you say at most.
If you say good things, they'llremember two or three things at
most.
And so I sat down I said, okay,I can talk about a lot of
things, but what one thing do Iwant people to walk away from as
I speak to these people andthat one thing was me is that
(13:49):
you need to ask for help, thatthere's people that are willing
to help you, there's people thatwant to help you, and so that's
kind of what I want this groupto be.
When someone feels like they'rebacked into a corner and they
have no one to turn to, theydon't have friends or family
that's willing to listen to them, that they have this community
that they can go to and sharesome of those challenges or
issues or pain points.
(14:10):
And if we help one person'slife with this mission, then
that makes me happy.
And I feel like we've alreadydone that and hopefully we
continue to use this group tomake people's lives a little bit
better, to give them a safespace, to have those important
conversations and just to havefun, just to share some whiskey
and try new things.
But yeah, that's really how,and to me personally, I make
(14:35):
myself available to anyone.
I tell my story.
That's the most important thingI think I can do is tell my
story, tell that I was broken,that I didn't know how to have
all the answers and I stilldon't and I hope that that
vulnerability allows otherpeople to feel safe talking
about the challenges, uh, intheir life and that's that's.
That's kind of what we do.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
Yeah, I can tell you that when I got out of the
military I was the same boat asyou with that.
I got divorced.
I remember my ex-wife.
She said she said I'll neverget involved with another
military person ever again and Iwas like at first I was like
screw you.
And then I was like that stillto this day has stuck with me
(15:17):
and that was my calling to takesome accountability.
And, um you that that was toughbecause I actually threw away,
like all my deserts, my dressblues, cause I just wanted to
shed the skin and I had to kindof come full circle again and
realize that this is who I amand this is what I've done.
(15:39):
So, um, yeah, I can totallyrelate with with what you're
saying and you know, suicide,suicide prevention, has been a
really big thing, especially inthe military community and for
the first responders I know hereLA County sheriffs I just saw
an article today where they hadlike 13 sheriff's deputies kill
themselves and the veterancommunity has been deeply
(16:00):
involved in that as well.
How do you personally staystrong while carrying such a
heavy message through thenon-profit?
Speaker 2 (16:09):
yeah.
So staying strong is, is, is,is tough.
I think, um, I'll tell you, Ithink perspective is is really
important.
I don't think that anything Ido will ever uh diminish a
little bit of of of what I'mdealing with, but I find that it
(16:33):
gives me an outlet to funnelsome of that pain, um, and
mental, mental health, uh,challenges that I have Right.
So so I think that that's kindof really the key.
It's not that I'm strong, it'sit's that I find productive
outlets to to kind of leverage,uh, leverage or you know there's
(16:55):
probably a better word but youknow, expel some of that pent up
pain.
Because that's what happened forthose 10 years is I didn't
acknowledge it.
Like you, I didn't watch amilitary movie.
I got rid of every single thing.
People didn't know I was in themilitary.
I was ashamed of that time.
I had survivor's guilt, which Ididn't know was a thing until
now, or until a few years ago,that I was carrying survivor's
(17:16):
guilt with me.
Everything I did, I was animposter.
I shouldn't have been here.
The self-talk was awful.
We kind of walk through thislife and people you're doing
everything great, you're ago-getter, you're an, a
personality, you, you know youwork hard, um and, but inside
you're you're telling yourselfyou suck, and that's that's kind
(17:38):
of really the.
The painful thing that I don'tthink people see is is is
everyone has their own you knowburden that they're carrying and
and and.
So I've done a lot of work onself-talk and accepting that I'm
not perfect and accepting whenI fail and say, okay, I failed,
acknowledge it, haveaccountability, fix it, it's
okay, right, no one's perfect.
(17:59):
No one is perfect, not evenclose to it, and so that's
really important, like I startedtalking about is perspective
and outlet.
So I try to maintainperspective that there is no
perfect path, but as long as youcan try to do your best and go
to bed at night thinking thatyou did your best and when you
didn't talk to yourself about it, quickly Acknowledge it, make
(18:23):
the correction and move on.
Do not sit and let it eat at you.
And if you did damage, that'sthe other thing.
If you did damage to someone ora relationship, you know, fix
it, talk about it, have aconversation.
You know clarity is kindness.
You know don't leave wordsunsaid.
Talk to that person andacknowledge your part in it.
(18:45):
And if they're wrong, if theydid something to you.
Okay, you know, grant themgrace, because it's not a
competition.
So some of those are like lifeskills that I've learned over
time and I am far from perfect.
If my wife listens to thisshe'll probably laugh, because
I'm still making the samemistakes I made before.
But I think, more than ever, Ithink I have a little bit more
(19:06):
internal dialogue and try towake up a little bit better and
learn from my mistakes, where inthe past I would bury them and
move on.
So that's a little bit betterand learn from my mistakes where
in the past I would bury themand move on.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
So that's a little bit about how I handle it.
Accountability is absolutelyhuge and I always tell veterans
you know, a lot of timesveterans are like, well,
civilians just don't get it,they don't get it, they don't
get it.
Well, I mean, how about youmeet them in the middle?
Understand that, like mostpeople didn't have to worry
about rockets and mortars andIEDs when you were 24 years old.
Not everyone has thatexperience.
(19:36):
So let's meet them in themiddle of the pasture and try to
understand that theirperspectives are not the same as
ours and I think that will helpyou digest and help your mental
health a lot more.
A lot of times.
And you mentioned positiveoutlet.
I mean, for me it was Brazilianjujitsu back in Chicago, Like I
, literally anytime I had arough patch in my life, I would
(19:58):
just submerge myself in that andjust go to the gym almost every
single day.
Um, what were some of thepositive things that that you
that helped you through and, uh,get through those tough times?
Speaker 2 (20:11):
Yeah.
So when I was not acknowledgingthem, probably not good things,
right.
So I probably did things thatyou know helped me mask the pain
a little bit.
But you know, I look back and Isay that's what I needed.
I don't think I was old enoughOld enough meaning not age but I
(20:31):
wasn't mature enough to to dealwith it Right.
So my body, my brain, uh, foundits own coping mechanisms.
But once I acknowledged that Iwas in pain, um, I found hobbies
and found family and founddifferent things that brought me
joy.
I try to look at things, uh,that that brought me joy in life
and and and pursue them with apassion.
You know, I got into woodworkingand started building furniture
(20:52):
around my house, which gave me asense of satisfaction to learn
and grow in a specific skill set.
You know, stuff like thatcraftsmanship always scared me.
I'm not good enough to, I'm notcreative, I can't figure this
out.
So one day I said, screw it,I'm going to go build a
workbench with just the toolsthat I have, and it sucked.
But I spent months building itand, you know, learn, but along
(21:15):
that process through failure.
This is the perfect example offailures.
Woodworking is nothing butfailure.
I mean, you literally failevery step of the way, and you
figure out how to fix it andcover it up, but it's never a
perfect fix.
That's okay, though, because anend product when you, when you,
when you learn and grow fromthese challenges actually looks
fantastic, and no one is thewiser when they look at these
(21:36):
woodworking projects thatthere's mistakes riddled
throughout, because you've kindof done your job, you've grown
and you've figured out how tokind of repair that to the
extent that you can.
Like I said, there's stillimperfections, but you're not
broken in any real way becauseyou've grown from it.
So that's one of the things Idid, and then I just really dove
(21:57):
into my family and enjoying mytime with my daughters and my
wife, and you know, me and mywife at one point, we've never
done this before to the extentthat we did.
So.
You know we needed time forourselves.
Our kids are getting a littleolder, we can leave them with
the grandparents, and so we tookwhat money we had, and you know
.
So, instead of buying thingsthis year, let's go on a really
(22:19):
remarkable trip, and we went for10, I think it was almost 12
days to Thailand and a littleself-care, you know, take care
of yourself.
There's a lot of guilt withparents about doing things like
that, and I understand it.
You know every.
You know time and and money arereally important, um, and you
want to make sure that you'redoing right by your kids.
But for us, we thought we'd showup as better parents if we
finally took a time out forourselves.
(22:40):
Um, so that was another way.
You know, me and my wife founda way to connect and and had
some really really powerfulconversations about who we are
and what we want out of thislife and acknowledge some of our
you know our challenges.
This wasn't any type of likemarriage trouble thing, but I
think you know I've been married, I've been my wife 20 years.
It's time to you know, go go,go re, get to know each other a
(23:02):
little bit after having you knowkids for 10 years.
So, yeah, that's, that's alittle bit what I do.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
I love, I love how you weathered that storm,
because I feel like a lot ofespecially combat veterans go
through that with their marriageA lot of times.
It's weathering that storm,getting through it and then the
veteran eventually taking someaccountability, ideally.
And I remember when you weredoing the woodworking thing, you
did a couple of pieces onInstagram with that and then I
(23:28):
didn't see anything else afterthat.
Next thing, I know you'repopping up on Instagram like
doing all these videos for thelast dram standing and I gotta
say, man, you, you're verypolished.
I don't know if you've been, uh, in the background doing like
Instagram video training or what, but your videos are really
nice, man, I, I, I'm reallyproud of you for that.
(23:54):
Um, you know each and everycombo I, combo I the
conversation that I have.
I feel like I learned so muchabout myself and other people.
Um, how do you think thisjourney with the last tram
standing has challenged you tobetter understand other people
and to and and what stories haveyou heard about?
You know, adapting andovercoming in in some of the
(24:16):
most unexpected ways?
Speaker 2 (24:18):
Yeah, that's actually a really fantastic question,
right.
So, um, I, I can say forcertain that it was.
Remarkably, I'm an introvert,like I said, and I don't like,
uh, you know, new situations.
I don't like the awkward.
First meets Uh, and this groupis nothing but awkward first
meets, right.
So, uh, now that we're a littlebit uh farther into developing
(24:40):
this community, it's a littleless so for me, but, um, so so
for me, first it was a challenge, right.
So I got to, I got to learn howto embrace that awkward tension
at these kind of earlyengagements and realize that
there's a reason I'm doing this,right.
So, once you get past thatawkward tension, you get to meet
(25:03):
some remarkable people, andthat was something I never like.
I was like I don't want to dothat because it, because it's
awkward.
Well, I had to like talk tomyself again.
Well, what happens if I canjust embrace the suck and and
and face that that kind of fearof mine?
And I've met some amazingpeople, people I would never
would have met in my entire lifethat tell me, uh, stories that
(25:25):
I would never have had theopportunity to, to hear about
and to learn about theirchallenges.
It's really interesting.
It's not a veteran group.
There are so many veterans, somany veterans.
And I went to a veteran dinnerthe other day for you know,
working on some charitableopportunities, and we sat around
(25:46):
the room and every one of usbrought a skill set to that
table that no one else had.
And at the end of that we'relike we just built this amazing
team that can accomplish so muchby stepping out of our comfort
zone, having this dinner andlearning and listening about
each other.
I mean, one guy istransitioning out of the
(26:06):
military and we had theconversation that you know he's
such amazing things in themilitary, he has all the skill
set and he can't even do thebare minimum in the civilian
world.
He's not qualified to the bareminimum in the civilian world
and he's like what do I do?
What do I do?
And I said you know that youhave these individuals that you
know lived a very, very, very,you know remarkable life and
(26:41):
were leaders in their communityand leaders in the military, and
they come into the civilianworld and it's jarring to find
out that you're not, you know,just going to pick up a job like
it's nothing, so hearing thosepeople's challenges and being
able to come together as acommunity.
You're not, you know, you'rejust going to pick up a job like
it's nothing, so, um, sohearing those people's
challenges and being able tocome together as a community and
find ways to help each andevery one of them has been been
pretty interesting.
So, um, you know, one of thegentlemen that that, you know, I
(27:02):
talked to, basically justgrinded as it was interesting.
He did woodwork and he didn'tknow what to do next, and so he
just started grinding and tryingto figure out how he can add
value and he found this littleniche of a market that wasn't
being serviced and now he is inevery single distillery.
This guy is down the road, he'sin every single distillery
(27:23):
across Kentucky pretty much,making bottle caps that go on
Glencairns, which is, you know,the tram, basically the thing
you drink whiskey out of.
You can drink whiskey out ofwhatever you want.
But you know, you see a lot ofus people who think we know
something you know, drinking outof those fancy glasses.
Well, he made a cap for them tokeep the dust out from what
we're eating, to keep the aromasin.
And he is making a remarkablebusiness and just got an offer
(27:45):
to get bought out Just by, youknow, putting his head down and
facing a challenge.
He just had a really difficulttime losing his dad and he
wanted to find a way to keep hismind busy and be productive.
So that's one of the storiesthat go on for days about
people's individualaccomplishments, but it's a big,
(28:05):
rewarding part of thiscommunity.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
Yeah, it's amazing to see and just have those
conversations with folks and howthey've evolved and how they've
progressed in their ownpersonal lives and some of the
amazing things that they come upwith.
Yeah, I started smiling whenyou were talking about being an
introvert and having thoseawkward conversations.
I don't know if you remember ornot, but I was.
I encouraged you once to go tothe American Legion in your own
neighborhood and you said it wasthe most awkward thing.
(28:33):
He walked in, you walked inthere and then they, uh, nobody
talked to you and you sat downand they just like do you like?
What are you doing here?
Speaker 2 (28:42):
Yeah, I did not enjoy it and, um, now I would just
walk up and strike aconversation with someone and
just get over the awkward, butback then, all right.
Now, you know, like I said, wegrow every, every, every day, we
grow, um, you've, you've seenme.
I, I've loved people.
I don't love the awkwardconversations, but I'm I'm
trying to do my best to getbetter at it I.
Speaker 1 (29:00):
I would say that, for I mean and I'll say this, like
the vfw, the american legion,the ones that I've been through
over the years, that's probablyone of the biggest problems they
have.
They can be very, very clickyat times and then if you're an
outsider coming in for the firsttime, you may not feel as
welcomed.
It takes a little time to warmup at those places.
So that's why, like an eventlike yours with Last Dram
(29:23):
Standing, where, like you canactually get on social media,
get to know Corey and whatCorey's about, kind of gives you
a little warmer feeling.
I guess walking through thedoor knowing that you're going
to feel a little more welcomed.
Speaker 2 (29:36):
Yeah, absolutely that was some of the purpose of,
like I said, don't like socialmedia, I'm introvert, but
everyone was encouraging me likeget out there, tell our story,
tell your story and be a littlebit, you know, fun with it and
hopefully that can make peopleput a face to the group and then
when they have to show up thatfirst time to someone's house or
event, they feel they feel likethey can go up to at least one
(29:57):
person and say hey, I saw youand strike a conversation.
So a little bit of anopportunity there.
Speaker 1 (30:02):
Yeah, I think that's a great opportunity.
So what have been?
What have been some of the mostcreative ways you've used
events or whiskey tastings orstorytelling to connect with
your audience and just raise theawareness overall?
Speaker 2 (30:17):
Yeah, so one of the things we do is try to give
people opportunities to dothings that they've never done
before, right?
So, for example, we'll startwith a single barrel program.
So, going to Kentucky andbecoming an industry insider for
a day and walking the warehouselike no one else gets access to
(30:38):
, and drinking multiple barrelsand discussing what's better,
what's unique, what can we offerthis community?
That would be something specialthat only this small amount of
people will ever get to taste,because it's only one barrel.
Most whiskeys are a massiveblend for consistency.
Right, when you buy something,you want it to taste the same
every time because you have anexpectation.
Well, that's not how singlebarrels work, and so we get to
(30:59):
go out there.
So what we do is we make surethat it's not just me and Ethan
or some of the leaders in theorganization going.
We offer it up to other people.
We do lotteries.
No purchase, no nothing.
Just put your name in and sayyou want to go and we'll do a
random generator.
I think giving is one of thebest things that you can do in
life and I think for people thataren't giving the first time
(31:21):
you give, just sit and reflect.
You'll realize that you feelmuch better than when you
receive.
At least that's how I feel, andI find that a lot of people
find a lot more satisfaction andjoy after giving.
So one of the things we like todo is give people opportunities
to do a once-in-a-lifetimeexperience and go with us to
Kentucky or Tennessee orwherever we may go, to do that
(31:43):
single barrel pick, and that'swhere deep connections are built
right.
It gives me a very militaryvibe.
You're out there for theweekend, you're traveling around
, you're, you're kind ofexploring and you spend the day,
you know, doing this experiencewhere you're choosing and then
and then the crazy and reallyamazing part about that is is
you come back home and then thatbottle arrives Right and you
(32:05):
get that bottle and then thatexperience, those memories are
kind of trapped inside of thatbottle.
Those memories are kind oftrapped inside of that bottle,
and so you really get to kind ofrelive the nostalgia of that
moment that you got toexperience.
It sounds like a little bitoverdramatic about, you know,
just trying whiskey, but I'mtelling you it comes back.
It's not about the consumption,it's about the community, it's
(32:26):
about the experience.
And at our age, you know, evenin your late 20s, 30s and 40s.
It's hard to get together withpeople.
We live busy lives and we'renot really good at making new
friends.
It's honest, my kid can walkacross the street and make a
friend in three minutes.
It's remarkable.
We just don't do that, and sothis is a pretty cool
(32:48):
opportunity.
So that's one of the ways.
And then we do really really tryhard we're young to find ways
to make it a little moreinviting.
So we're trying to do a golfcharity tournament right now to
get to different distilleries tosponsor a whole, and so we put
it on neutral ground.
We give people opportunities togo somewhere they're familiar
with.
They don't have to play golfright, and when you do these
(33:08):
types of charity events, it'sclosest to the pan, or, you know
, we can be silly with it andmake people comfortable, or you
can just come in and be a partof the event and the barbecue
and stuff like that.
So that's one of the thingswe're working on, and then we
hear feedback from the community.
Whatever the community wants todo, we listen.
So that's, that's some of thethings that we do.
Speaker 1 (33:27):
Yeah, have you guys came up with any type of annual
event yet that you plan on doing?
Because I saw on your socialmedia a couple of years ago you
did the bourbon trail, but Idon't think that was related to
this, was it?
Speaker 2 (33:38):
So it depends.
I did one on my own where Iwent and selected a bottle of
Blanton's for a restaurant, andthen I did the bourbon trail
with some friends one time andthen I've done it multiple times
since then.
Obviously, so, depending onwhich one, I've done it multiple
, yeah, so repeat that question.
(33:58):
Sorry, I got lost on that.
Speaker 1 (34:02):
What type of?
I guess the main part of thatquestion was well, what?
Speaker 2 (34:08):
the.
Maybe you didn't ask, but youwere just chatting with me about
the.
Speaker 1 (34:10):
Kentucky Trail.
Oh, I was talking about theKentucky Trail.
Yeah, I'll erase this partright here.
Let me write down the 34minutes.
I'll fix it.
24 minutes, I'll fix it.
Yeah, so the Kentucky BourbonTrail.
I know that you were on theKentucky Bourbon Trail before.
I'm not sure if you did it withthe nonprofit or you did it on
your own, but for those outthere that aren't aware of what
(34:31):
it is, can you tell them whatthe Bourbon Trail is all about?
Speaker 2 (34:34):
Yeah, absolutely so the first time I went I thought
it was like a little path andyou go to distilleries and have,
you know, have a good day.
But it is absolutely not.
That it is basically all ofKentucky.
So the Bourbon Trail is just away to talk about the numerous
distilleries that are, you know,out there in Kentucky and it's
pretty remarkable that you gotBardstown, you got Lynchburg,
(34:57):
you got Louisville, you got somany different, or Lawrenceburg
and so many different locations,and so what you do, really what
most people generally do, isyou go to Louisville, which is
kind of the core of the KentuckyTrail, and there's distilleries
up and down, you know the mainstreet there, and then you spend
a day there.
You'll spend a day in Bardstownand you go to the different
areas and kind of experience thedifferent distilleries, whether
(35:20):
it's Buffalo Trace, Wild Turkey, whatever you're interested in
Bardstown, which is my absolutefavorite distillery, and what
they're doing and kind of howthey go about making whiskey.
It's really just a remarkablething that they're doing and
they put out good stuff at goodcosts, which in a market that it
is right now, is a littleunfortunate some of the prices.
But yeah, that's the KentuckyTrail.
(35:42):
You do it however you want.
There's no right way to do itand there's plenty of things
here.
You can collect stamps andstuff.
But when I did it a few times,just go to as many distilleries
as you can, spend time withfriends and family and have a
good time.
Speaker 1 (36:01):
Yeah, that's what I wanted to ask too was are you
guys planning on coming up withany type of annual meeting or
annual event?
Speaker 2 (36:05):
that's going to happen on a regular basis,
absolutely.
So I think fiscal year 26, Icall it fiscal year because of
military and government, butcalendar year 26 or however we
want to do it.
We're probably looking at doingthat for the first time.
So we do four events a year.
They're called our all chaptershares, where we rent a space
and we do a really massive event.
And that's kind of been ourfour way.
You know our entry into doingsome of these larger scale
(36:28):
events, uh.
But we do want to do one bigannual charity event.
Uh, you know whether that'ssomething in Kentucky or whether
that's something you know here.
Most likely we'll do here.
And then we have the castcollective.
So maybe we do something alittle bit bigger where we
invite people to do the trailwith us.
There's some opportunitiesthere.
But probably the first bigevent we're going to do is this
(36:50):
golf event and maybe that willbecome our annual event, like an
annual fundraiser for whateverwe decide to support.
But that would be a really goodopportunity to bring the
industry into the fold and alsobring all of our members and
kind of combine and have areally, really massive event
that supports a good cause.
Speaker 1 (37:10):
You guys are also reaching out to civilians too,
Like this isn't just aboutmilitary veterans.
So this is kind of the bridgebetween civilians and our
military right.
Speaker 2 (37:20):
Absolutely, and you'd be at least.
I'm amazed at how much peoplereally care about the veteran
community that are not veterans.
I think everyone has a veteranin their life or at least know
that a veteran or heard a story.
And so when we do support youknow, with these annual bottles
that we do to support a fallenservice member, the support is
(37:41):
tremendous and I think reallypeople can really get behind
that cause, that ultimatesacrifice that some of our peers
have given, you know, just soselfless, just to protect our
country and to protect ourpeople and to protect what we
hold so dear in our families andour freedoms.
(38:01):
And so, yes, it's definitely alarge cadre of civilians, and
then there's a large cadre ofveterans mixed in.
I've found that to be one of themost important parts of this is
letting you know veterans enterthis community and then learn
both from the veteran community.
There can be echo chambers inthe veteran community which can
(38:22):
be a little bit toxic, uh, andso you know, not all of them,
I'm not.
I'm not saying anything poorlyabout the veteran community, but
sometimes we get into our ownheads and we just want to
complain about the same thingover and over again.
That does not no one any good.
So talking to civilians thatcan give you options, give you
alternatives, give a differentperspective, for once I think it
is really really helpful.
Speaker 1 (38:41):
Yeah, no, I agree a thousand percent.
That's why, with this podcast,I was specifically doing
military, military, militarymilitary.
Now I've opened it up totalking to civilians too.
I mean, I've got a D1 athletethat I interviewed, I've got
content creators that are verysuccessful that I've interviewed
and, you know, everybody has astory and a lot of times I'm
(39:02):
relating those to the storiesthat I brought, I bring to the
table from the military Um, butthere's civilians talking, so
it's, it's that bridge, andthat's what I love about your
nonprofit and just everythingthat you're doing with this Um,
you know, it's what's the onething that you well, I guess,
what kind of impact do you hopeto leave behind through this
(39:26):
movement?
Speaker 2 (39:27):
So I think, I think it's simple, I think it's it's
and I like to say, and chat andmeet and tell their story or
escape in a really healthy way,right it just, you know, you get
(39:50):
through the mundane of the dayand we forget that this is a
life we're living, right, it'ssupposed to.
I mean, I don't know what it'ssupposed to be, but I know that
I don't want to just be on thishamster wheel and sometimes life
can feel like that.
So, you know, if we can shakethat up a little bit and you
know, give someone a weekend todo something a little different
and meet with a bunch of peopleand have a few drinks
responsibly and, you know, goofoff a little bit, and that's
(40:13):
really, really important.
So the legacy I want to leavebehind is kind of twofold in
that sense is to give people inour community the opportunity to
meet and build a sense ofcommunity that's going to, I
think, be healthy.
I know we're talking alcoholhere, but there's a lot of
science behind the fact that ifyou don't have a community, I
think it's actually you live amuch shorter life, right, and
(40:35):
that's because there's purpose,and I don't know what it is
about purpose that's innate withus, that makes us healthier and
happier, but it does, at leastfrom my opinion, and the science
seems to back that up.
And so giving people anopportunity to meet and find
their why, find their purpose Idon't know if we'll do that for
a lot of people, but hopefullyfor a few and then, you know,
(40:55):
create an organization that isable to take that really awesome
experience in our community andleverage that to help other
people from a charitable aspect,right.
So this is serving not only ourlocal community people.
But we're going to take it'scrazy that we can take this
thing that we're already doingand then hopefully, you know,
(41:15):
turn it into even more by givingback to those that really need
help, really need support,whether that's, you know, gold
Star families, or you knowveteran families, or you know
children with cancer, orwhatever it may be that we find
our community is reallypassionate about.
That's what we'll go at.
And hopefully I can leave andthat continues and is a safe
space for everyone to enjoy eachother's company.
Speaker 1 (41:37):
Yeah, just to play a role you know is is is really
important, um, changing livesand saving lives, and I've been
doing this podcast for almostthree years now and, uh, I went
through my, my stage of justbeing awful, terrible and to
where I'm at now, which I'mstill trying to get there.
But, um, I love it when peoplesay that they found someone else
(41:58):
through my podcast, like I likethem being able to find
resources, finding help, findingthat voice, find that community
and I know nonprofits there's alocal golf nonprofit here in
Los Angeles and there's a lot ofveterans and find that
(42:27):
community that you're talkingabout specifically Now over the
horizon.
Uh, you talked about some ofthe events.
Um, is there any partnershipsor any type of expansions that,
uh, that you're aware of rightnow, or is that still in the
works?
Speaker 2 (42:42):
Yes, there's a few I can't talk about, but there's
one I want to give a shout out.
So there's a group that's anonprofit that's just coming up.
They're called Whiskey Valor,and Luis is an amazing, amazing
guy and he's really working hardto give back in a similar
fashion.
His isn't a club based likeours, but it is a nonprofit
(43:05):
surrounding whiskey that's solegoal is to give back to the
veteran community and he'sblowing up right now.
So I'm going to go have dinnerwith him in the near future.
We already did one and justtalk about the art of the
possible.
So we're really, really excitedabout partnering with them in
the future to see how we cancome together to make a bigger
impact.
And that's one thing.
I don't think we can do thisalone.
(43:26):
I think, team, I think you knowthis about me at least, I hope
you do.
From a leadership perspective,my job is only to empower the
people around me to do greatstuff and to follow their dreams
and their passions and givethem every tool and tear down
every wall I can so that theycan be successful.
And so you know, when you'retalking about running an
(43:48):
organization, you know I look atit the same way.
I don't have all the answersand I need help.
So partnering and collabing withdifferent people and
organizations giving freely withexpecting nothing in return I
think will end up being very,very beneficial for us, because
I think it always comes fullcircle.
So I just hope to be a part ofthe community, be part of the
conversation and continue tokind of grow this.
(44:11):
And, like you said, you know, Ithink the civilians are really,
you know, a big part of ourorganization, a large part.
So we'll look to do stuff bothin the civilian and the veteran
community.
But really, really excitedabout a few other partnerships
as well that I'm really excitedabout.
I'm really excited aboutWhiskey Ballard, but there's
some I just can't talk aboutright now, but once those come
to fruition maybe we can circleback and you know we'll chat
(44:33):
about it, because it's going tobe.
It's going to be an excitingdevelopment.
Speaker 1 (44:36):
That sounds awesome.
You know, the one thing,speaking of leadership, that
I've always envied about you wasthe fact that you allow people
to take initiative and toutilize their own creativity,
and you're great at developingas well and recognizing folks
and their skills and attributes.
Last jam standing man, it's nosurprise to me that you are as
(45:00):
polished as you are with yoursocial media, and it's simply
just getting more and morepopular and gaining more
traction.
I appreciate it, corey.
If someone out there islistening today and is
struggling, or knows someone whois struggling, what message
would you give them right now?
Speaker 2 (45:20):
So I'd give them a lot of messages if I could sit
them down and talk to them, butI think that I would tell them
that they're almost there.
The fact that they're listeningand they're hearing what we're
saying and they're acknowledgingit is literally the hardest
step.
I mean, it took me 10 years toacknowledge I was struggling.
You know you're hurting, butyou don't know why.
(45:42):
But if you acknowledge that youthink you found that you're,
you have to talk through whetherthat's through therapy, whether
that's through, you know,fixing your life, you know
creating structure back in yourlife.
You leave the military and allthat structure goes away and you
become complacent and you buildbad habits, you know, or you
(46:06):
rely on motivation to get youthrough the day, and that's
never going to work.
It's discipline and it'scommunity and it's support
systems that are going to getyou to to achieve your goals.
And so I tell them that they're, they're almost there.
And now the big step is to seekhelp, and that's whether it's a
friend or a family member, orreaching out, you know, and
getting therapy.
It's.
There's no shame in any of them.
And and my, you know, last jamstanding is my, my title on
Instagram, but you know anyonecan reach me, um, and if
(46:27):
someone's really hurting, thatthat would give me no, no
greater joy in life to just be aa you know, a year to listen,
um, and and generally I try notto offer too much advice.
You know I will if, if, push my.
My job is to job is to listento you and help you kind of walk
through that path and figureout what you know, what the next
step is for you and you know Ijust try to use my own life as
(46:57):
an example is the biggest thingfor me was learning to
acknowledge and learning to talkabout it.
And from there it was a journey, little step, baby, step by
time, to come to terms with whatit means to be healthy mentally
and physically, because whenyour mental health goes, your
physical health goes as well, inmy opinion.
So that's my only advice Findyour purpose, find your why.
You don't need to find it outtoday.
Seek help from those around you, and I think the good things
(47:20):
are right around the corner.
Speaker 1 (47:27):
That's great advice.
That's really great adviceactually.
Um, seeking help, becoming astronger person, resiliency I'm
the type of person now where Imean you can't say much to me to
really bother me, because II've already probably said it to
myself, especially if it'snegative, and I think it's made
me a stronger person seekinghelp, seeking therapy over the
years.
Was there anything in thispodcast that I didn't mention,
(47:50):
corey, that you want to mentionbefore we wrap things up?
Speaker 2 (47:53):
Yeah, I mean, I think , first of all, I'm just really
proud of everything you're doing.
I think you know we talk aboutpurpose and community.
You're doing both and I thinkthat's really, really awesome to
show the world that you know.
You're doing something that Ithink you can be really proud of
, and it has meaning behind itand purpose and it seems very
(48:17):
genuine in this day and age.
Sometimes these types of thingsare done for the wrong reasons,
and I know you well and I knowthat you're really in this to
help people and it means a lotto you.
You're one of the kindestpeople I've ever met and you
know you've been in a lot ofchaos with me and you know I
always try to be, you know, calmin the storm, and I've seen
(48:39):
that from you as well.
You know calm in the storm, uh,and I and I've seen that from
you as well and so I think, asas, as you know, we've wrapped
up this, this podcast I thinkthat's that's all I want people
to understand is that maybe youcan find a way to find purpose
and to find meaning.
Um, it doesn't have to be big,it doesn't have to be life
altering and shattering, and itcan be something that's been
done a million times, but if itbrings you joy and it brings you
(49:00):
purpose, then I thinkeverything else falls in line.
And, like I said before, likewe've covered a lot, I think, if
you, you know, back to thewhole thing that we're doing
here is find your community andfind your purpose.
And I'm telling you, you know,try to be a little bit better
every day.
Just show up.
I think you're going to have afantastic um, or I think you're
just gonna be shocked at howquickly things you know move in
(49:23):
the right direction for you, andthen I think people around you
are going to take notice andhopefully that becomes toxic in
a good way.
More and more people um, try toget better and try to help
people and give back, and Ithink you know, once we all
start doing that, this is goingto be a fantastic, freaking
world man Um, and I'm excitedfor it.
Speaker 1 (49:40):
Yeah, no doubt I appreciate you calling me kind,
because that's the first timeanyone's ever called me kind my
whole life.
But, um, man, I tell you whatI've been very blessed to know
and have worked with great folkslike yourself, professionals,
um, and had so many awesomeopportunities.
You know, once you hit bottomand you get back up again, um,
there there's really, it makesyou like Teflon.
(50:03):
So I've been there before and Ijust hope that anything just
like you, anything that I'veever failed at, I hope that I
can share with other people tosave them from making the same
mistakes, but also to thatnothing was ever done in vain.
So I appreciate your rawhonesty and unwavering mission
to turn pain into purpose, withthe last tram standing, and this
(50:26):
is a reminder that even thesmallest moments, a conversation
, a sip, a shared memory cansave a life.
And for our listeners, remembersurvivability is not just about
making it through thebattlefield, it's about staying
in the fight when no one'swatching through the battlefield
, it's about staying in thefight when no one's watching.
So if this episode moved, youshare it, please tag someone,
talk to a brother or sister whomight need to hear it.
(50:46):
And, as always, I want you tostay tuned, stay focused and
stay motivated, but I want youto also follow Corey's mission
on Instagram at the last dramstanding.
And, Corey, do you have othersocial media platforms that you
want to mention too?
Speaker 2 (50:59):
Yeah, so it's pretty easy because I found the name
that was actually availableeverywhere, so it's always at
the last train standing.
Youtube, instagram, tiktok,which I'm.
You know I'm on TikTok somehow,and in every other space you're
going to find me Twitter, allat the same name.
So, if you don't mind, I'd beremissed.
And I hate to add one thing,but it's.
You know, I woke up today andrealized that it's May 21st, and
(51:22):
so Levi Barnard was, you know,unfortunately killed.
You know, 2009,.
May 21st, which is today.
And it's kind of serendipitousthat you know you invited me on
this podcast on this day.
We didn't select it for anyreason other than it was
available.
So the fact that we get to filmthis today and just shed a
little light on my brother andjust tell his story you know
(51:48):
it's been quite a long time I'mjust proud and very thankful
that we get to do that.
So thanks, man.
You're just, you're fantastic.
Love what you're doing.
Speaker 1 (51:58):
What an absolute honor.
I had no idea.
Love what you're doing.
What an absolute honor.
I had no idea.
So thank you for giving me theopportunity, on especially this
memorable day, to interview youfor the podcast.
And you know things happen fora reason, Corey.
Absolutely, Things really dohappen for a reason.
And for everyone else out there, I guess we would dedicate this
(52:18):
episode to Lieutenant Barnhart.
I didn't know that, that's asurprise to me.
I'm kind of shocked right now,but dedicate this episode to him
, his family and his memory.
And thanks again, Corey, forsharing the nonprofit.
And for everyone else out there, as always, I want you to stay
tuned, stay focused and staymotivated.
(52:39):
Warriors fall out.
Warriors fall in.
It's time for formation.
Welcome back to the MorningFormation podcast, folks, where
we dive deep into the stories ofsurvivability, resilience and
real-world transformation.
I'm your host, kp, and todaywe're uncorking a powerful
conversation with a man whosenonprofit mission is raising
awareness one dram at a time.
Corey, from Last Dram Standing,joins us to talk about service,
(00:22):
loss healing and how the singlepoor can serve a purpose far
greater than itself.
Corey, thank you for joining meon the Morning Formation today.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Absolutely, man.
It's a pleasure and it's been along time since you and I got
to connect and you know you'reone of my favorite people.
So this is I'm super excited tobe here and super, super proud
of everything you're creatingand super happy to get into a
little bit about what we'redoing over here and and tell a
little bit of our story.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
You know you've always been a very purposeful,
uh, efficient and effectiveprofessional, and so I I've
always highly respected you forthat and, um, everything that
you've done with this nonprofitso far, everything that I'm
seeing, I am so impressed.
Uh, even today, looking at yourbackground and just your, your
visuals, I can't tell you likehow much I am like like kind of
(01:11):
an envy.
I'm like, wow, I want to belike that someday.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
I appreciate that.
It's uh, I think we're.
We're very similar in the factthat when we do something, we
try to do it right.
We have we do it with andintentionality, and I don't ever
want to show up with less thanmy best.
And you know, I have twodaughters and I try to emulate
that.
I don't I don't think I canteach them through telling them
what to do, but through myexample.
So it's the little things thatyou do.
(01:35):
When you tell someone you'regoing to be there, you'd be
there on time, you'd be thereearly.
When you're, when you'reworking with someone, when
you're working with someone, youshow up with everything you've
got and you do your best so thatthey want to come back and work
with you again.
It's the little things.
I mess up and I slip up all thetime and I don't get it right,
but at least I try and that'ssomething I you know every day.
I just try to show up a littlebit better than I did the day
before.
(01:55):
So that's all that is Right.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
You know, and I've often talked to veterans and
just people that I know ingeneral, who mess up and fail
and they're embarrassed about it, and I always tell them hey,
there's nothing to beembarrassed about as long as you
walk away as a better man.
And failing forward is a realthing and I can certainly relate
to what you're saying.
But let's get into thenonprofit.
So those that may not know whata dram is, tell us what a dram
is and what is the last dramstanding and how did this entire
(02:27):
mission come to life?
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Yeah, absolutely.
So.
It was somewhat organic, youknow, a couple of years ago.
First I'll start with what adram is.
A dram is just a pour, you know, a glass, right.
And so in this modern day, whenyou're looking to name yourself
other than you know your name,which is these Corys and my last
name, no one can pronounce.
So I wanted to come up withsomething.
There's very limited optionsand as I was kind of scouring
(02:52):
the Internet for what wasavailable, you know the last man
standing is a little bit tonguein cheek, but it's a little bit
about just, you know, lookingback at our history, the good
parts of being man enough toface your fears and your
failures, and you just do thehard thing first wake up in the
morning to put your best footforward.
So there's a little bit of anhomage to that.
It's a comedy show with the guyfrom Home Improvement, which I
(03:18):
watched as a kid quitereligiously, but yeah, that's
kind of where the name came from.
I found something that kind ofhad a little bit of tongue in
cheek but paid a little homageto what I was looking to do.
But the actual nonprofit camefrom the fact that I was looking
for a little bit of community.
I found myself, you know,trying to engage with people,
(03:39):
and as you get older that getsreally, really tough, and I am
an introvert at heart, so for meit's even more difficult, but I
wanted to.
You know, it was during theCOVID times and I didn't feel
like I was getting a sense ofcommunity.
And, you know, the more I growand get older, I find that
that's really one of the keys toa healthy and happy life is
community.
(03:59):
So you build a really strong,hopeful community with your
family and your close-knitfriends, and then I think you
should expand and challengeyourself a little bit to do
things that are a little bitoutside your comfort zone.
So in an endeavor to do that, Ifound this whiskey club that had
just started and it was startedby a gentleman named Ethan Pope
and he was like four or fivepeople strong, and so, you know,
(04:20):
I got a little uncomfortableand, you know, I joined the
group and I ended up hosting oneof the first events.
It's a whiskey club wherepeople from the northern
Virginia area get together and,just, you know, hang out and
share a pour, share some storiesand use the dram not as
consumption but as community.
I don't look at the whiskeyclub as a club of consumption,
but rather a club of communityand bringing people together,
(04:43):
and I think it's a reallyimportant distinction.
I think whiskey serves justthat single purpose to bring
people together for camaraderieand to tell stories similar to
what we used to do in themilitary.
So it started there and thenthe group blew up.
It was remarkable, you know,sometimes you just hit a chord
and as the club blew up, youknow, we started to say, okay,
(05:04):
if we have this opportunity,maybe we should do a little bit
more.
And we started talking about itand ended up ultimately
deciding that we wanted to usethis group as an opportunity to
give back and leave a legacybehind.
And so that's what we did.
We started the nonprofit withthe Nova Whiskey Club and over
time we expanded it nationallywith a club called the Cask
Collective, which is a singlebarrel organization where we go
(05:28):
out and select single barrelsand use the proceeds of that to
give back to different charities.
We've given back primarily toveteran charities, but we don't
limit ourselves to veterancharities.
We look for where we can havethe greatest impact and support
the community and beyond that wedo something which I'm pretty
proud of.
I mean we can get into a littlebit later, but every year we do
a bottle that honors a fallenservice member and, fortunate
(05:50):
enough and unfortunate enoughfor me, I was able to honor, you
know, my best friend in themilitary when we were in Iraq.
He got hit by a suicide bomb,and so that first bottle that we
ever selected was in honor ofhim, and we did it with one of
our good friends, with Blue BoltSpirits.
It's an NDP, a non-distillingproducer, and he's a Marine, a
(06:10):
current Marine.
He's doing fantastic stuff.
And so we came together andwent down to Mississippi and
selected this amazing barrel anddid it in honor of Levi Barnard
First Lieutenant Levi Barnard,which was just a really, really
amazing opportunity for me toshow just a small part of his
story to the world, and it kindof blew up from there, and then
that's it.
(06:31):
And so now we're just lookingfor ways to partner with
different organizations in thecommunity.
We're going to do something atthe Army-Navy game, hopefully
next year with Travis ManionFoundation.
So we're just looking at allkinds of opportunities to
support, you know, not only theveteran community but any
important charities.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
Yeah, I certainly feel like Operation Iraqi
Freedom and Operation EnduringFreedom is so far in a rearview
mirror.
A lot of people have kind offorgotten about it and it's
pretty sad to say that.
I remember a time where eachand every day they would come
out with a list of fallensoldiers that were dying in Iraq
and Afghanistan.
And you know, for combatveterans like us that sort of
(07:10):
hits home because we were thereat one point in time.
Now, with the nonprofit, whatposition do you serve?
Speaker 2 (07:17):
So I'm actually the president and CEO of the
nonprofit.
So I stepped up.
You know, just had somebusiness background.
I have an MBA.
When I transitioned fromcivilian life to actually when I
was in LA, I went and got myMBA.
But so I decided, you know, wedecided as a team that would be
(07:39):
the best decision.
So we have a board ofcommittees.
Ethan serves as the chiefoperating officer, he's the
founder of the Nova Whiskey Cluband then we co-founded the Cast
Collective and we really lookat it as a partnership.
My title may be president, Idon't view myself as that.
I view myself as a partner and100% will be forever with him
and kind of accomplishing ourmission.
So, yeah, that's my first timeever being a president, probably
(08:01):
the last, but it's been a funlittle adventure.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
No, it's a great cause, for sure.
Now, from my understanding, itsounds like this idea slowly
came about and was executedslowly.
Or was there a specific eventthat pushed you and your team to
actually execute and create thelast dram standing?
Speaker 2 (08:22):
Yeah, so it was a little bit of a challenge when
we were looking at selecting ourfirst single barrel.
There's so many laws andregulations that surround
operating in the in the spirits,you know community and and
industry, and so while we werelooking down that road, you know
we, you know LLC and thesedifferent things and it felt a
(08:42):
little odd.
You know we were not in thisfor money Never were, never are
going to be.
This is not what our intentionwas and, like I said at the
beginning, I want to do thingspurposefully and with intention
and I wanted to be clear withthe expectations for the group
that this group is never goingto be pushing alcohol and
whiskey and other spirits forthe sole purpose of making
(09:03):
profit.
So we thought the only way wecould broadcast that in the
clearest terms is to work ongetting a nonprofit together,
and so that's kind of whatspurned the idea.
We talked about it, we lookedat the feasibility and there's
precedent for doing thisactually quite a bit of it and
we found that that was going tobe the best option for us.
We're very happy we made thatdecision.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
Yeah, wow, what a journey.
So, corey, tell me how.
Tell me how has your ownjourney influenced the core
message behind this organization?
Speaker 2 (09:35):
Yeah.
So I mean, my journey is longand windy, like most people's.
So I will say, starting kind ofmidway through my journey,
exiting the military, I foundthat it was quite difficult to
find where I fit in, and I wentthrough a really, really rough
(09:56):
time.
Although I didn't know, it wasa rough time during that time.
I think that story is veryfamiliar to a lot of veterans,
where you think you're fine andthen you look back 10 years
later and you realize that thedamage that you had done was
directly related to some of thetrauma that happened while you
were either in combat orwherever.
You know.
These types of things canhappen in any situation, combat
(10:16):
or not.
And so, as I looked back, Irealized how much I could have
used a real community, a groupof people that were not there,
to tell me you know everything'sokay and you know, do whatever
you want, and the world owes youthis and the world owes you
that I needed a strongercommunity of people that I could
share my you know needs and myissues and my challenges with,
(10:40):
and also celebrate some of theaccomplishments and joys in my
life.
And so I found, through thebusyness of my life I've always
wanted to get back to helpingother people find that important
community, and that's reallyreally what drove us to kind of
expand this group.
It's kind of where I foundmyself lacking in life at a
(11:01):
young age, in the formativeyears.
I wanted to provide thatopportunity and, like I said,
this is a very small niche typeof opportunity, so this will
only serve a small subset of agroup of people that are really
interested in bourbon andwhiskey and coming together to
and, like I said, our group isvery much in person.
We want to.
We saw a gap in what peoplewere doing with whiskey.
(11:22):
They were collecting andwaiting in lines and all those
other types of things, and so Iwanted to bring people together
for what we thought was the bestpart of whiskey, and so that's
kind of what drove us to that toserve a little bit of the
community in a way, to bringpeople together and then
hopefully other people are doingthe same thing and finding ways
(11:43):
to get veterans engaged andjust not even just veterans,
just everyone, to find a senseof community and purpose in life
.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
Yeah, community is so important when it comes to
being understood and mentalhealth.
So, you know, on this podcast,I just recently started
switching my direction towardssurvivability, both physical and
mental.
My direction towardssurvivability, both physical and
mental.
So tell me, how does the LastTram Standing support those
silently battling mental healthissues that you mentioned
(12:11):
earlier?
Speaker 2 (12:12):
Yeah, absolutely so we.
I think the greatest part aboutwhat we're doing is, like I
said, we got really big reallyreally quickly, and so we
realized we weren't able toserve the community in the way
that we wanted to.
Ethan and I couldn't talk tothousands of people on a regular
basis.
It's just not possible.
It's not possible to meet thatmany people in a short period of
(12:36):
time, because we have otherresponsibilities, both work and
family, which continue to bepriorities for me.
So we broke our group up intodifferent chapters and we
identified people that wethought were strong pillars in
the community and strong leadersthemselves and kind of embodied
the things that we found to beimportant.
And by doing that, or by kindof separating these groups into
(13:03):
regions, we're able to havethese really, really purposeful
small shares on a regular basiswhere people can come together
and share their challenges.
Like you just talked about,We've had numerous issues where
people came to us with specificchallenges and we were able to
get them the help that they need, and it's through conversation.
I gave a speech the other dayfor Veterans Day and the
(13:25):
conversation revolved around youknow, when I sat down I said
what one thing, Because peopledon't remember much of what you
say.
They really don't.
They remember like two or threethings that you say at most.
If you say good things, they'llremember two or three things at
most.
And so I sat down I said, okay,I can talk about a lot of
things, but what one thing do Iwant people to walk away from as
I speak to these people andthat one thing was me is that
(13:49):
you need to ask for help, thatthere's people that are willing
to help you, there's people thatwant to help you, and so that's
kind of what I want this groupto be.
When someone feels like they'rebacked into a corner and they
have no one to turn to, theydon't have friends or family
that's willing to listen to them, that they have this community
that they can go to and sharesome of those challenges or
issues or pain points.
(14:10):
And if we help one person'slife with this mission, then
that makes me happy.
And I feel like we've alreadydone that and hopefully we
continue to use this group tomake people's lives a little bit
better, to give them a safespace, to have those important
conversations and just to havefun, just to share some whiskey
and try new things.
But yeah, that's really how,and to me personally, I make
(14:35):
myself available to anyone.
I tell my story.
That's the most important thingI think I can do is tell my
story, tell that I was broken,that I didn't know how to have
all the answers and I stilldon't and I hope that that
vulnerability allows otherpeople to feel safe talking
about the challenges, uh, intheir life and that's that's.
That's kind of what we do.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
Yeah, I can tell you that when I got out of the
military I was the same boat asyou with that.
I got divorced.
I remember my ex-wife.
She said she said I'll neverget involved with another
military person ever again and Iwas like at first I was like
screw you.
And then I was like that stillto this day has stuck with me
(15:17):
and that was my calling to takesome accountability.
And, um you that that was toughbecause I actually threw away,
like all my deserts, my dressblues, cause I just wanted to
shed the skin and I had to kindof come full circle again and
realize that this is who I amand this is what I've done.
(15:39):
So, um, yeah, I can totallyrelate with with what you're
saying and you know, suicide,suicide prevention, has been a
really big thing, especially inthe military community and for
the first responders I know hereLA County sheriffs I just saw
an article today where they hadlike 13 sheriff's deputies kill
themselves and the veterancommunity has been deeply
(16:00):
involved in that as well.
How do you personally staystrong while carrying such a
heavy message through thenon-profit?
Speaker 2 (16:09):
yeah.
So staying strong is, is, is,is tough.
I think, um, I'll tell you, Ithink perspective is is really
important.
I don't think that anything Ido will ever uh diminish a
little bit of of of what I'mdealing with, but I find that it
(16:33):
gives me an outlet to funnelsome of that pain, um, and
mental, mental health, uh,challenges that I have Right.
So so I think that that's kindof really the key.
It's not that I'm strong, it'sit's that I find productive
outlets to to kind of leverage,uh, leverage or you know there's
(16:55):
probably a better word but youknow, expel some of that pent up
pain.
Because that's what happened forthose 10 years is I didn't
acknowledge it.
Like you, I didn't watch amilitary movie.
I got rid of every single thing.
People didn't know I was in themilitary.
I was ashamed of that time.
I had survivor's guilt, which Ididn't know was a thing until
now, or until a few years ago,that I was carrying survivor's
(17:16):
guilt with me.
Everything I did, I was animposter.
I shouldn't have been here.
The self-talk was awful.
We kind of walk through thislife and people you're doing
everything great, you're ago-getter, you're an, a
personality, you, you know youwork hard, um and, but inside
you're you're telling yourselfyou suck, and that's that's kind
(17:38):
of really the.
The painful thing that I don'tthink people see is is is
everyone has their own you knowburden that they're carrying and
and and.
So I've done a lot of work onself-talk and accepting that I'm
not perfect and accepting whenI fail and say, okay, I failed,
acknowledge it, haveaccountability, fix it, it's
okay, right, no one's perfect.
(17:59):
No one is perfect, not evenclose to it, and so that's
really important, like I startedtalking about is perspective
and outlet.
So I try to maintainperspective that there is no
perfect path, but as long as youcan try to do your best and go
to bed at night thinking thatyou did your best and when you
didn't talk to yourself about it, quickly Acknowledge it, make
(18:23):
the correction and move on.
Do not sit and let it eat at you.
And if you did damage, that'sthe other thing.
If you did damage to someone ora relationship, you know, fix
it, talk about it, have aconversation.
You know clarity is kindness.
You know don't leave wordsunsaid.
Talk to that person andacknowledge your part in it.
(18:45):
And if they're wrong, if theydid something to you.
Okay, you know, grant themgrace, because it's not a
competition.
So some of those are like lifeskills that I've learned over
time and I am far from perfect.
If my wife listens to thisshe'll probably laugh, because
I'm still making the samemistakes I made before.
But I think, more than ever, Ithink I have a little bit more
(19:06):
internal dialogue and try towake up a little bit better and
learn from my mistakes, where inthe past I would bury them and
move on.
So that's a little bit betterand learn from my mistakes where
in the past I would bury themand move on.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
So that's a little bit about how I handle it.
Accountability is absolutelyhuge and I always tell veterans
you know, a lot of timesveterans are like, well,
civilians just don't get it,they don't get it, they don't
get it.
Well, I mean, how about youmeet them in the middle?
Understand that, like mostpeople didn't have to worry
about rockets and mortars andIEDs when you were 24 years old.
Not everyone has thatexperience.
(19:36):
So let's meet them in themiddle of the pasture and try to
understand that theirperspectives are not the same as
ours and I think that will helpyou digest and help your mental
health a lot more.
A lot of times.
And you mentioned positiveoutlet.
I mean, for me it was Brazilianjujitsu back in Chicago, Like I
, literally anytime I had arough patch in my life, I would
(19:58):
just submerge myself in that andjust go to the gym almost every
single day.
Um, what were some of thepositive things that that you
that helped you through and, uh,get through those tough times?
Speaker 2 (20:11):
Yeah.
So when I was not acknowledgingthem, probably not good things,
right.
So I probably did things thatyou know helped me mask the pain
a little bit.
But you know, I look back and Isay that's what I needed.
I don't think I was old enoughOld enough meaning not age but I
(20:31):
wasn't mature enough to to dealwith it Right.
So my body, my brain, uh, foundits own coping mechanisms.
But once I acknowledged that Iwas in pain, um, I found hobbies
and found family and founddifferent things that brought me
joy.
I try to look at things, uh,that that brought me joy in life
and and and pursue them with apassion.
You know, I got into woodworkingand started building furniture
(20:52):
around my house, which gave me asense of satisfaction to learn
and grow in a specific skill set.
You know, stuff like thatcraftsmanship always scared me.
I'm not good enough to, I'm notcreative, I can't figure this
out.
So one day I said, screw it,I'm going to go build a
workbench with just the toolsthat I have, and it sucked.
But I spent months building itand, you know, learn, but along
(21:15):
that process through failure.
This is the perfect example offailures.
Woodworking is nothing butfailure.
I mean, you literally failevery step of the way, and you
figure out how to fix it andcover it up, but it's never a
perfect fix.
That's okay, though, because anend product when you, when you,
when you learn and grow fromthese challenges actually looks
fantastic, and no one is thewiser when they look at these
(21:36):
woodworking projects thatthere's mistakes riddled
throughout, because you've kindof done your job, you've grown
and you've figured out how tokind of repair that to the
extent that you can.
Like I said, there's stillimperfections, but you're not
broken in any real way becauseyou've grown from it.
So that's one of the things Idid, and then I just really dove
(21:57):
into my family and enjoying mytime with my daughters and my
wife, and you know, me and mywife at one point, we've never
done this before to the extentthat we did.
So.
You know we needed time forourselves.
Our kids are getting a littleolder, we can leave them with
the grandparents, and so we tookwhat money we had, and you know
.
So, instead of buying thingsthis year, let's go on a really
(22:19):
remarkable trip, and we went for10, I think it was almost 12
days to Thailand and a littleself-care, you know, take care
of yourself.
There's a lot of guilt withparents about doing things like
that, and I understand it.
You know every.
You know time and and money arereally important, um, and you
want to make sure that you'redoing right by your kids.
But for us, we thought we'd showup as better parents if we
finally took a time out forourselves.
(22:40):
Um, so that was another way.
You know, me and my wife founda way to connect and and had
some really really powerfulconversations about who we are
and what we want out of thislife and acknowledge some of our
you know our challenges.
This wasn't any type of likemarriage trouble thing, but I
think you know I've been married, I've been my wife 20 years.
It's time to you know, go go,go re, get to know each other a
(23:02):
little bit after having you knowkids for 10 years.
So, yeah, that's, that's alittle bit what I do.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
I love, I love how you weathered that storm,
because I feel like a lot ofespecially combat veterans go
through that with their marriageA lot of times.
It's weathering that storm,getting through it and then the
veteran eventually taking someaccountability, ideally.
And I remember when you weredoing the woodworking thing, you
did a couple of pieces onInstagram with that and then I
(23:28):
didn't see anything else afterthat.
Next thing, I know you'repopping up on Instagram like
doing all these videos for thelast dram standing and I gotta
say, man, you, you're verypolished.
I don't know if you've been, uh, in the background doing like
Instagram video training or what, but your videos are really
nice, man, I, I, I'm reallyproud of you for that.
(23:54):
Um, you know each and everycombo I, combo I the
conversation that I have.
I feel like I learned so muchabout myself and other people.
Um, how do you think thisjourney with the last tram
standing has challenged you tobetter understand other people
and to and and what stories haveyou heard about?
You know, adapting andovercoming in in some of the
(24:16):
most unexpected ways?
Speaker 2 (24:18):
Yeah, that's actually a really fantastic question,
right.
So, um, I, I can say forcertain that it was.
Remarkably, I'm an introvert,like I said, and I don't like,
uh, you know, new situations.
I don't like the awkward.
First meets Uh, and this groupis nothing but awkward first
meets, right.
So, uh, now that we're a littlebit uh farther into developing
(24:40):
this community, it's a littleless so for me, but, um, so so
for me, first it was a challenge, right.
So I got to, I got to learn howto embrace that awkward tension
at these kind of earlyengagements and realize that
there's a reason I'm doing this,right.
So, once you get past thatawkward tension, you get to meet
(25:03):
some remarkable people, andthat was something I never like.
I was like I don't want to dothat because it, because it's
awkward.
Well, I had to like talk tomyself again.
Well, what happens if I canjust embrace the suck and and
and face that that kind of fearof mine?
And I've met some amazingpeople, people I would never
would have met in my entire lifethat tell me, uh, stories that
(25:25):
I would never have had theopportunity to, to hear about
and to learn about theirchallenges.
It's really interesting.
It's not a veteran group.
There are so many veterans, somany veterans.
And I went to a veteran dinnerthe other day for you know,
working on some charitableopportunities, and we sat around
(25:46):
the room and every one of usbrought a skill set to that
table that no one else had.
And at the end of that we'relike we just built this amazing
team that can accomplish so muchby stepping out of our comfort
zone, having this dinner andlearning and listening about
each other.
I mean, one guy istransitioning out of the
(26:06):
military and we had theconversation that you know he's
such amazing things in themilitary, he has all the skill
set and he can't even do thebare minimum in the civilian
world.
He's not qualified to the bareminimum in the civilian world
and he's like what do I do?
What do I do?
And I said you know that youhave these individuals that you
know lived a very, very, very,you know remarkable life and
(26:41):
were leaders in their communityand leaders in the military, and
they come into the civilianworld and it's jarring to find
out that you're not, you know,just going to pick up a job like
it's nothing, so hearing thosepeople's challenges and being
able to come together as acommunity.
You're not, you know, you'rejust going to pick up a job like
it's nothing, so, um, sohearing those people's
challenges and being able tocome together as a community and
find ways to help each andevery one of them has been been
pretty interesting.
So, um, you know, one of thegentlemen that that, you know, I
(27:02):
talked to, basically justgrinded as it was interesting.
He did woodwork and he didn'tknow what to do next, and so he
just started grinding and tryingto figure out how he can add
value and he found this littleniche of a market that wasn't
being serviced and now he is inevery single distillery.
This guy is down the road, he'sin every single distillery
(27:23):
across Kentucky pretty much,making bottle caps that go on
Glencairns, which is, you know,the tram, basically the thing
you drink whiskey out of.
You can drink whiskey out ofwhatever you want.
But you know, you see a lot ofus people who think we know
something you know, drinking outof those fancy glasses.
Well, he made a cap for them tokeep the dust out from what
we're eating, to keep the aromasin.
And he is making a remarkablebusiness and just got an offer
(27:45):
to get bought out Just by, youknow, putting his head down and
facing a challenge.
He just had a really difficulttime losing his dad and he
wanted to find a way to keep hismind busy and be productive.
So that's one of the storiesthat go on for days about
people's individualaccomplishments, but it's a big,
(28:05):
rewarding part of thiscommunity.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
Yeah, it's amazing to see and just have those
conversations with folks and howthey've evolved and how they've
progressed in their ownpersonal lives and some of the
amazing things that they come upwith.
Yeah, I started smiling whenyou were talking about being an
introvert and having thoseawkward conversations.
I don't know if you remember ornot, but I was.
I encouraged you once to go tothe American Legion in your own
neighborhood and you said it wasthe most awkward thing.
(28:33):
He walked in, you walked inthere and then they, uh, nobody
talked to you and you sat downand they just like do you like?
What are you doing here?
Speaker 2 (28:42):
Yeah, I did not enjoy it and, um, now I would just
walk up and strike aconversation with someone and
just get over the awkward, butback then, all right.
Now, you know, like I said, wegrow every, every, every day, we
grow, um, you've, you've seenme.
I, I've loved people.
I don't love the awkwardconversations, but I'm I'm
trying to do my best to getbetter at it I.
Speaker 1 (29:00):
I would say that, for I mean and I'll say this, like
the vfw, the american legion,the ones that I've been through
over the years, that's probablyone of the biggest problems they
have.
They can be very, very clickyat times and then if you're an
outsider coming in for the firsttime, you may not feel as
welcomed.
It takes a little time to warmup at those places.
So that's why, like an eventlike yours with Last Dram
(29:23):
Standing, where, like you canactually get on social media,
get to know Corey and whatCorey's about, kind of gives you
a little warmer feeling.
I guess walking through thedoor knowing that you're going
to feel a little more welcomed.
Speaker 2 (29:36):
Yeah, absolutely that was some of the purpose of,
like I said, don't like socialmedia, I'm introvert, but
everyone was encouraging me likeget out there, tell our story,
tell your story and be a littlebit, you know, fun with it and
hopefully that can make peopleput a face to the group and then
when they have to show up thatfirst time to someone's house or
event, they feel they feel likethey can go up to at least one
(29:57):
person and say hey, I saw youand strike a conversation.
So a little bit of anopportunity there.
Speaker 1 (30:02):
Yeah, I think that's a great opportunity.
So what have been?
What have been some of the mostcreative ways you've used
events or whiskey tastings orstorytelling to connect with
your audience and just raise theawareness overall?
Speaker 2 (30:17):
Yeah, so one of the things we do is try to give
people opportunities to dothings that they've never done
before, right?
So, for example, we'll startwith a single barrel program.
So, going to Kentucky andbecoming an industry insider for
a day and walking the warehouselike no one else gets access to
(30:38):
, and drinking multiple barrelsand discussing what's better,
what's unique, what can we offerthis community?
That would be something specialthat only this small amount of
people will ever get to taste,because it's only one barrel.
Most whiskeys are a massiveblend for consistency.
Right, when you buy something,you want it to taste the same
every time because you have anexpectation.
Well, that's not how singlebarrels work, and so we get to
(30:59):
go out there.
So what we do is we make surethat it's not just me and Ethan
or some of the leaders in theorganization going.
We offer it up to other people.
We do lotteries.
No purchase, no nothing.
Just put your name in and sayyou want to go and we'll do a
random generator.
I think giving is one of thebest things that you can do in
life and I think for people thataren't giving the first time
(31:21):
you give, just sit and reflect.
You'll realize that you feelmuch better than when you
receive.
At least that's how I feel, andI find that a lot of people
find a lot more satisfaction andjoy after giving.
So one of the things we like todo is give people opportunities
to do a once-in-a-lifetimeexperience and go with us to
Kentucky or Tennessee orwherever we may go, to do that
(31:43):
single barrel pick, and that'swhere deep connections are built
right.
It gives me a very militaryvibe.
You're out there for theweekend, you're traveling around
, you're, you're kind ofexploring and you spend the day,
you know, doing this experiencewhere you're choosing and then
and then the crazy and reallyamazing part about that is is
you come back home and then thatbottle arrives Right and you
(32:05):
get that bottle and then thatexperience, those memories are
kind of trapped inside of thatbottle.
Those memories are kind oftrapped inside of that bottle,
and so you really get to kind ofrelive the nostalgia of that
moment that you got toexperience.
It sounds like a little bitoverdramatic about, you know,
just trying whiskey, but I'mtelling you it comes back.
It's not about the consumption,it's about the community, it's
(32:26):
about the experience.
And at our age, you know, evenin your late 20s, 30s and 40s.
It's hard to get together withpeople.
We live busy lives and we'renot really good at making new
friends.
It's honest, my kid can walkacross the street and make a
friend in three minutes.
It's remarkable.
We just don't do that, and sothis is a pretty cool
(32:48):
opportunity.
So that's one of the ways.
And then we do really really tryhard we're young to find ways
to make it a little moreinviting.
So we're trying to do a golfcharity tournament right now to
get to different distilleries tosponsor a whole, and so we put
it on neutral ground.
We give people opportunities togo somewhere they're familiar
with.
They don't have to play golfright, and when you do these
(33:08):
types of charity events, it'sclosest to the pan, or, you know
, we can be silly with it andmake people comfortable, or you
can just come in and be a partof the event and the barbecue
and stuff like that.
So that's one of the thingswe're working on, and then we
hear feedback from the community.
Whatever the community wants todo, we listen.
So that's, that's some of thethings that we do.
Speaker 1 (33:27):
Yeah, have you guys came up with any type of annual
event yet that you plan on doing?
Because I saw on your socialmedia a couple of years ago you
did the bourbon trail, but Idon't think that was related to
this, was it?
Speaker 2 (33:38):
So it depends.
I did one on my own where Iwent and selected a bottle of
Blanton's for a restaurant, andthen I did the bourbon trail
with some friends one time andthen I've done it multiple times
since then.
Obviously, so, depending onwhich one, I've done it multiple
, yeah, so repeat that question.
(33:58):
Sorry, I got lost on that.
Speaker 1 (34:02):
What type of?
I guess the main part of thatquestion was well, what?
Speaker 2 (34:08):
the.
Maybe you didn't ask, but youwere just chatting with me about
the.
Speaker 1 (34:10):
Kentucky Trail.
Oh, I was talking about theKentucky Trail.
Yeah, I'll erase this partright here.
Let me write down the 34minutes.
I'll fix it.
24 minutes, I'll fix it.
Yeah, so the Kentucky BourbonTrail.
I know that you were on theKentucky Bourbon Trail before.
I'm not sure if you did it withthe nonprofit or you did it on
your own, but for those outthere that aren't aware of what
(34:31):
it is, can you tell them whatthe Bourbon Trail is all about?
Speaker 2 (34:34):
Yeah, absolutely so the first time I went I thought
it was like a little path andyou go to distilleries and have,
you know, have a good day.
But it is absolutely not.
That it is basically all ofKentucky.
So the Bourbon Trail is just away to talk about the numerous
distilleries that are, you know,out there in Kentucky and it's
pretty remarkable that you gotBardstown, you got Lynchburg,
(34:57):
you got Louisville, you got somany different, or Lawrenceburg
and so many different locations,and so what you do, really what
most people generally do, isyou go to Louisville, which is
kind of the core of the KentuckyTrail, and there's distilleries
up and down, you know the mainstreet there, and then you spend
a day there.
You'll spend a day in Bardstownand you go to the different
areas and kind of experience thedifferent distilleries, whether
(35:20):
it's Buffalo Trace, Wild Turkey, whatever you're interested in
Bardstown, which is my absolutefavorite distillery, and what
they're doing and kind of howthey go about making whiskey.
It's really just a remarkablething that they're doing and
they put out good stuff at goodcosts, which in a market that it
is right now, is a littleunfortunate some of the prices.
But yeah, that's the KentuckyTrail.
(35:42):
You do it however you want.
There's no right way to do itand there's plenty of things
here.
You can collect stamps andstuff.
But when I did it a few times,just go to as many distilleries
as you can, spend time withfriends and family and have a
good time.
Speaker 1 (36:01):
Yeah, that's what I wanted to ask too was are you
guys planning on coming up withany type of annual meeting or
annual event?
Speaker 2 (36:05):
that's going to happen on a regular basis,
absolutely.
So I think fiscal year 26, Icall it fiscal year because of
military and government, butcalendar year 26 or however we
want to do it.
We're probably looking at doingthat for the first time.
So we do four events a year.
They're called our all chaptershares, where we rent a space
and we do a really massive event.
And that's kind of been ourfour way.
You know our entry into doingsome of these larger scale
(36:28):
events, uh.
But we do want to do one bigannual charity event.
Uh, you know whether that'ssomething in Kentucky or whether
that's something you know here.
Most likely we'll do here.
And then we have the castcollective.
So maybe we do something alittle bit bigger where we
invite people to do the trailwith us.
There's some opportunitiesthere.
But probably the first bigevent we're going to do is this
(36:50):
golf event and maybe that willbecome our annual event, like an
annual fundraiser for whateverwe decide to support.
But that would be a really goodopportunity to bring the
industry into the fold and alsobring all of our members and
kind of combine and have areally, really massive event
that supports a good cause.
Speaker 1 (37:10):
You guys are also reaching out to civilians too,
Like this isn't just aboutmilitary veterans.
So this is kind of the bridgebetween civilians and our
military right.
Speaker 2 (37:20):
Absolutely, and you'd be at least.
I'm amazed at how much peoplereally care about the veteran
community that are not veterans.
I think everyone has a veteranin their life or at least know
that a veteran or heard a story.
And so when we do support youknow, with these annual bottles
that we do to support a fallenservice member, the support is
(37:41):
tremendous and I think reallypeople can really get behind
that cause, that ultimatesacrifice that some of our peers
have given, you know, just soselfless, just to protect our
country and to protect ourpeople and to protect what we
hold so dear in our families andour freedoms.
(38:01):
And so, yes, it's definitely alarge cadre of civilians, and
then there's a large cadre ofveterans mixed in.
I've found that to be one of themost important parts of this is
letting you know veterans enterthis community and then learn
both from the veteran community.
There can be echo chambers inthe veteran community which can
(38:22):
be a little bit toxic, uh, andso you know, not all of them,
I'm not.
I'm not saying anything poorlyabout the veteran community, but
sometimes we get into our ownheads and we just want to
complain about the same thingover and over again.
That does not no one any good.
So talking to civilians thatcan give you options, give you
alternatives, give a differentperspective, for once I think it
is really really helpful.
Speaker 1 (38:41):
Yeah, no, I agree a thousand percent.
That's why, with this podcast,I was specifically doing
military, military, militarymilitary.
Now I've opened it up totalking to civilians too.
I mean, I've got a D1 athletethat I interviewed, I've got
content creators that are verysuccessful that I've interviewed
and, you know, everybody has astory and a lot of times I'm
(39:02):
relating those to the storiesthat I brought, I bring to the
table from the military Um, butthere's civilians talking, so
it's, it's that bridge, andthat's what I love about your
nonprofit and just everythingthat you're doing with this Um,
you know, it's what's the onething that you well, I guess,
what kind of impact do you hopeto leave behind through this
(39:26):
movement?
Speaker 2 (39:27):
So I think, I think it's simple, I think it's it's
and I like to say, and chat andmeet and tell their story or
escape in a really healthy way,right it just, you know, you get
(39:50):
through the mundane of the dayand we forget that this is a
life we're living, right, it'ssupposed to.
I mean, I don't know what it'ssupposed to be, but I know that
I don't want to just be on thishamster wheel and sometimes life
can feel like that.
So, you know, if we can shakethat up a little bit and you
know, give someone a weekend todo something a little different
and meet with a bunch of peopleand have a few drinks
responsibly and, you know, goofoff a little bit, and that's
(40:13):
really, really important.
So the legacy I want to leavebehind is kind of twofold in
that sense is to give people inour community the opportunity to
meet and build a sense ofcommunity that's going to, I
think, be healthy.
I know we're talking alcoholhere, but there's a lot of
science behind the fact that ifyou don't have a community, I
think it's actually you live amuch shorter life, right, and
(40:35):
that's because there's purpose,and I don't know what it is
about purpose that's innate withus, that makes us healthier and
happier, but it does, at leastfrom my opinion, and the science
seems to back that up.
And so giving people anopportunity to meet and find
their why, find their purpose Idon't know if we'll do that for
a lot of people, but hopefullyfor a few and then, you know,
(40:55):
create an organization that isable to take that really awesome
experience in our community andleverage that to help other
people from a charitable aspect,right.
So this is serving not only ourlocal community people.
But we're going to take it'scrazy that we can take this
thing that we're already doingand then hopefully, you know,
(41:15):
turn it into even more by givingback to those that really need
help, really need support,whether that's, you know, gold
Star families, or you knowveteran families, or you know
children with cancer, orwhatever it may be that we find
our community is reallypassionate about.
That's what we'll go at.
And hopefully I can leave andthat continues and is a safe
space for everyone to enjoy eachother's company.
Speaker 1 (41:37):
Yeah, just to play a role you know is is is really
important, um, changing livesand saving lives, and I've been
doing this podcast for almostthree years now and, uh, I went
through my, my stage of justbeing awful, terrible and to
where I'm at now, which I'mstill trying to get there.
But, um, I love it when peoplesay that they found someone else
(41:58):
through my podcast, like I likethem being able to find
resources, finding help, findingthat voice, find that community
and I know nonprofits there's alocal golf nonprofit here in
Los Angeles and there's a lot ofveterans and find that
(42:27):
community that you're talkingabout specifically Now over the
horizon.
Uh, you talked about some ofthe events.
Um, is there any partnershipsor any type of expansions that,
uh, that you're aware of rightnow, or is that still in the
works?
Speaker 2 (42:42):
Yes, there's a few I can't talk about, but there's
one I want to give a shout out.
So there's a group that's anonprofit that's just coming up.
They're called Whiskey Valor,and Luis is an amazing, amazing
guy and he's really working hardto give back in a similar
fashion.
His isn't a club based likeours, but it is a nonprofit
(43:05):
surrounding whiskey that's solegoal is to give back to the
veteran community and he'sblowing up right now.
So I'm going to go have dinnerwith him in the near future.
We already did one and justtalk about the art of the
possible.
So we're really, really excitedabout partnering with them in
the future to see how we cancome together to make a bigger
impact.
And that's one thing.
I don't think we can do thisalone.
(43:26):
I think, team, I think you knowthis about me at least, I hope
you do.
From a leadership perspective,my job is only to empower the
people around me to do greatstuff and to follow their dreams
and their passions and givethem every tool and tear down
every wall I can so that theycan be successful.
And so you know, when you'retalking about running an
(43:48):
organization, you know I look atit the same way.
I don't have all the answersand I need help.
So partnering and collabing withdifferent people and
organizations giving freely withexpecting nothing in return I
think will end up being very,very beneficial for us, because
I think it always comes fullcircle.
So I just hope to be a part ofthe community, be part of the
conversation and continue tokind of grow this.
(44:11):
And, like you said, you know, Ithink the civilians are really,
you know, a big part of ourorganization, a large part.
So we'll look to do stuff bothin the civilian and the veteran
community.
But really, really excitedabout a few other partnerships
as well that I'm really excitedabout.
I'm really excited aboutWhiskey Ballard, but there's
some I just can't talk aboutright now, but once those come
to fruition maybe we can circleback and you know we'll chat
(44:33):
about it, because it's going tobe.
It's going to be an excitingdevelopment.
Speaker 1 (44:36):
That sounds awesome.
You know, the one thing,speaking of leadership, that
I've always envied about you wasthe fact that you allow people
to take initiative and toutilize their own creativity,
and you're great at developingas well and recognizing folks
and their skills and attributes.
Last jam standing man, it's nosurprise to me that you are as
(45:00):
polished as you are with yoursocial media, and it's simply
just getting more and morepopular and gaining more
traction.
I appreciate it, corey.
If someone out there islistening today and is
struggling, or knows someone whois struggling, what message
would you give them right now?
Speaker 2 (45:20):
So I'd give them a lot of messages if I could sit
them down and talk to them, butI think that I would tell them
that they're almost there.
The fact that they're listeningand they're hearing what we're
saying and they're acknowledgingit is literally the hardest
step.
I mean, it took me 10 years toacknowledge I was struggling.
You know you're hurting, butyou don't know why.
(45:42):
But if you acknowledge that youthink you found that you're,
you have to talk through whetherthat's through therapy, whether
that's through, you know,fixing your life, you know
creating structure back in yourlife.
You leave the military and allthat structure goes away and you
become complacent and you buildbad habits, you know, or you
(46:06):
rely on motivation to get youthrough the day, and that's
never going to work.
It's discipline and it'scommunity and it's support
systems that are going to getyou to to achieve your goals.
And so I tell them that they're, they're almost there.
And now the big step is to seekhelp, and that's whether it's a
friend or a family member, orreaching out, you know, and
getting therapy.
It's.
There's no shame in any of them.
And and my, you know, last jamstanding is my, my title on
Instagram, but you know anyonecan reach me, um, and if
(46:27):
someone's really hurting, thatthat would give me no, no
greater joy in life to just be aa you know, a year to listen,
um, and and generally I try notto offer too much advice.
You know I will if, if, push my.
My job is to job is to listento you and help you kind of walk
through that path and figureout what you know, what the next
step is for you and you know Ijust try to use my own life as
(46:57):
an example is the biggest thingfor me was learning to
acknowledge and learning to talkabout it.
And from there it was a journey, little step, baby, step by
time, to come to terms with whatit means to be healthy mentally
and physically, because whenyour mental health goes, your
physical health goes as well, inmy opinion.
So that's my only advice Findyour purpose, find your why.
You don't need to find it outtoday.
Seek help from those around you, and I think the good things
(47:20):
are right around the corner.
Speaker 1 (47:27):
That's great advice.
That's really great adviceactually.
Um, seeking help, becoming astronger person, resiliency I'm
the type of person now where Imean you can't say much to me to
really bother me, because II've already probably said it to
myself, especially if it'snegative, and I think it's made
me a stronger person seekinghelp, seeking therapy over the
years.
Was there anything in thispodcast that I didn't mention,
(47:50):
corey, that you want to mentionbefore we wrap things up?
Speaker 2 (47:53):
Yeah, I mean, I think , first of all, I'm just really
proud of everything you're doing.
I think you know we talk aboutpurpose and community.
You're doing both and I thinkthat's really, really awesome to
show the world that you know.
You're doing something that Ithink you can be really proud of
, and it has meaning behind itand purpose and it seems very
(48:17):
genuine in this day and age.
Sometimes these types of thingsare done for the wrong reasons,
and I know you well and I knowthat you're really in this to
help people and it means a lotto you.
You're one of the kindestpeople I've ever met and you
know you've been in a lot ofchaos with me and you know I
always try to be, you know, calmin the storm, and I've seen
(48:39):
that from you as well.
You know calm in the storm, uh,and I and I've seen that from
you as well and so I think, asas, as you know, we've wrapped
up this, this podcast I thinkthat's that's all I want people
to understand is that maybe youcan find a way to find purpose
and to find meaning.
Um, it doesn't have to be big,it doesn't have to be life
altering and shattering, and itcan be something that's been
done a million times, but if itbrings you joy and it brings you
(49:00):
purpose, then I thinkeverything else falls in line.
And, like I said before, likewe've covered a lot, I think, if
you, you know, back to thewhole thing that we're doing
here is find your community andfind your purpose.
And I'm telling you, you know,try to be a little bit better
every day.
Just show up.
I think you're going to have afantastic um, or I think you're
just gonna be shocked at howquickly things you know move in
(49:23):
the right direction for you, andthen I think people around you
are going to take notice andhopefully that becomes toxic in
a good way.
More and more people um, try toget better and try to help
people and give back, and Ithink you know, once we all
start doing that, this is goingto be a fantastic, freaking
world man Um, and I'm excitedfor it.
Speaker 1 (49:40):
Yeah, no doubt I appreciate you calling me kind,
because that's the first timeanyone's ever called me kind my
whole life.
But, um, man, I tell you whatI've been very blessed to know
and have worked with great folkslike yourself, professionals,
um, and had so many awesomeopportunities.
You know, once you hit bottomand you get back up again, um,
there there's really, it makesyou like Teflon.
(50:03):
So I've been there before and Ijust hope that anything just
like you, anything that I'veever failed at, I hope that I
can share with other people tosave them from making the same
mistakes, but also to thatnothing was ever done in vain.
So I appreciate your rawhonesty and unwavering mission
to turn pain into purpose, withthe last tram standing, and this
(50:26):
is a reminder that even thesmallest moments, a conversation
, a sip, a shared memory cansave a life.
And for our listeners, remembersurvivability is not just about
making it through thebattlefield, it's about staying
in the fight when no one'swatching through the battlefield
, it's about staying in thefight when no one's watching.
So if this episode moved, youshare it, please tag someone,
talk to a brother or sister whomight need to hear it.
(50:46):
And, as always, I want you tostay tuned, stay focused and
stay motivated, but I want youto also follow Corey's mission
on Instagram at the last dramstanding.
And, Corey, do you have othersocial media platforms that you
want to mention too?
Speaker 2 (50:59):
Yeah, so it's pretty easy because I found the name
that was actually availableeverywhere, so it's always at
the last train standing.
Youtube, instagram, tiktok,which I'm.
You know I'm on TikTok somehow,and in every other space you're
going to find me Twitter, allat the same name.
So, if you don't mind, I'd beremissed.
And I hate to add one thing,but it's.
You know, I woke up today andrealized that it's May 21st, and
(51:22):
so Levi Barnard was, you know,unfortunately killed.
You know, 2009,.
May 21st, which is today.
And it's kind of serendipitousthat you know you invited me on
this podcast on this day.
We didn't select it for anyreason other than it was
available.
So the fact that we get to filmthis today and just shed a
little light on my brother andjust tell his story you know
(51:48):
it's been quite a long time I'mjust proud and very thankful
that we get to do that.
So thanks, man.
You're just, you're fantastic.
Love what you're doing.
Speaker 1 (51:58):
What an absolute honor.
I had no idea.
Love what you're doing.
What an absolute honor.
I had no idea.
So thank you for giving me theopportunity, on especially this
memorable day, to interview youfor the podcast.
And you know things happen fora reason, Corey.
Absolutely, Things really dohappen for a reason.
And for everyone else out there, I guess we would dedicate this
(52:18):
episode to Lieutenant Barnhart.
I didn't know that, that's asurprise to me.
I'm kind of shocked right now,but dedicate this episode to him
, his family and his memory.
And thanks again, Corey, forsharing the nonprofit.
And for everyone else out there, as always, I want you to stay
tuned, stay focused and staymotivated.
(52:39):
Warriors fall out.
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