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Welcome to the Confidence Curve with Ashley and Rick Bowers, where personal and professional journeys define the art of scaling with confidence.
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Whether you're a business leader navigating change or someone seeking personal growth, this podcast offers insights and actionable advice to help you thrive.
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Now let's dive into today's conversation with our incredible guest.
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Welcome to the Confidence Curve with Apex GTS Advisors.
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My name is Ashley Bowers and I'm here with my husband and co-host, rick Bowers.
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We're happy and excited to be with you guys today to discuss the 100 Mile Brewery.
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So we have Sue here with us and we are so thankful that you decided to join us on our podcast today.
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We appreciate your time and can't wait to get to know a little bit more about you and the curve that you've been on to grow the brewery over the last several years.
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So, if you want, just kick us off with a little bit about you and about your company.
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Sure Well, thank you Ashley and Rick and I didn't know you guys were married, your company?
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Sure Well, thank you Ashley and Rick and I didn't know you guys were married.
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There we go, so here we go.
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I just learned something Fabulous.
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So, yes, I, my name is Sue Riggler and I'm owner of 100 Mile Brewing Company and we opened in December 2022.
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So we are going into almost going into our third year three years open, which is no small feat for somebody that had no idea how to run a restaurant.
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When I got into it, I wanted to open a brewery and now we have a full-fledged, full-on, full-service restaurant production facility, the brewery and an event space.
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So a lot to take on.
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When you know you got to sink or swim, right?
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Yeah, absolutely yeah.
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So I've been enjoying and learning the process.
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Every day is a different experience.
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When you're in hospitality, no days are the same.
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You whack a lot of moles, one goes down and another one pops up.
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So that's just a day in the life of an entrepreneur and hospitality brewery owner.
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Absolutely.
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So you and I have a little bit in common.
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We both grew up in Iowa, both went to Arizona State and kind of from there you decided to kind of make this plunge.
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We met at, I think, class 6 of the Alumni Leadership Institute yes to the brewery for lunch, and we talked a little bit and you had said you'd gone from zero to 45 employees in such a short period of time and it's kind of a shock doing that.
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So tell us a little bit about kind of what was that like?
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Well, I think, first of all, both being from Iowa and getting out of Iowa, we're both super smart people, right?
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Yeah.
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So, at least not right now, because it's the middle of the summer and it's a little bit hot here.
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But, um, yeah, I came to.
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I was a microbiology major at ASU and I had I've from Iowa.
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I was very Iowa nice.
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We had a lot of block parties and pig roasts and just a lot of community events and neighborhood events and, um, you know, it's like I said, it's community.
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So I've always had that hospitable kind of entrepreneur spirit and, for I didn't drink beer when I was 10 years old, but I did have a Budweiser t-shirt that I wore a lot when I was 10 years old.
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So I kind of had this affinity for beverages.
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I collected beer cans.
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Yeah, my dad built me a shelf just for my beer can collection and so, between the science, my microbiology degree and kind of my affinity for hospitality and craft beer, I saw a microscope in a craft beer or in a craft brewery one day and kind of this aha moment and I talked to the brewer and it was like, from that moment in 2014, I never stopped thinking about opening a brewery.
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I was so passionate about nobody nobody was going to talk me out of it.
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I had no idea what I was doing, but I managed to get the funding and the location, the great prime location in tempe, right on the north side of Tempe Town Lake.
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So all the stars aligned and my dream has come true yeah it's amazing.
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It's so amazing.
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I love all of that yeah, I collected beer cans as a kid too, but it was because there was a five cent refund on them and that was good money back in the day because you could go go around and do that.
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I think it's still five cents, isn't it?
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it could be yeah.
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I'm just happy that we don't have that here.
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Very much so.
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So opening it back in December of 2022, what was your vision at that time?
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And then, how does it compare to what you've achieved today?
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That's a great question.
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Going back to December 22 and looking at what I've created, I think I nailed it.
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I really do.
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Because I'm all about community and being a Sun Devil and loving the city of Tempe.
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I have so much support from the city that I could not have thought of a better or dreamt of a more prime, perfect location for me.
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So community giving back my clientele is we have so many regulars.
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It's a very I hear the word vibe all the time and welcoming all the time.
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100 Mile is where you keep your beer freshest from production.
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So I don't want my beer to travel any more than 100 Miles and so I want to keep it local, super fresh and super local.
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And I dreamt of my.
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My dream is to have fit lifestyle.
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I'm a runner, so 100 miles has nothing to do with running, it's about fresh beer.
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But I do have a running club on sunday mornings at 8 30 so I've incorporated my running.
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Running and beer are my two favorite things, you know, so I kind of has a good counterbalance, so it is good I run to the finish line and have a beer.
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I mean, what more could you want?
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Absolutely, that's awesome.
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We run to the store to get more beer.
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I guess would be the extent of my running.
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I'm not, definitely not a runner, but I do enjoy beer.
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Yeah, there's beer.
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There's two kinds of beer runs right Beer run to the store and you run a 10K and have a beer.
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What I love about that answer.
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I'm currently listening to the book the Gap in the Game and it's talking a lot about the psychology of entrepreneurs and success and overachievers and how we tend to always measure ourselves by where we're going, and that's why so many, statistically, don't ever achieve happiness.
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Right, they're in that we haven't had enough yet mentality and you know the things that go along with that and how, if you want to truly achieve happiness, you measure success by where you come, like that, that gain that you've already had, and your entire answer was everything that you achieved, which was just amazing and definitely something that people should inspire.
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To be able to look at it from that perspective thank you for saying that, because not every day the whack-a-mole sometimes you get frustrated about that happiness Absolutely.
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After we had a conversation the other day, I went to the website and was reading the stories on the website too about the original owner of that building B and all of the stories connected there, and so I don't know that.
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I remember looking at the picture in the bar from your window in Manzi, looking back at that direction.
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So next time I'm in I have to look for that.
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Right, they have a picture on the bar, a framed picture, I took in.
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I'm going to tell kind of a little bit.
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I'm giving my age up here, but in 1982, when I was a freshman at ASUU, I lived in the door of Manzanita.
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It was 15 stories high, so I lived on the 13th floor and I took a picture facing north out of those, you know, those crappy little Kodak they were paper cameras that you manually wound and then you sent them in for developing.
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But so I just I took a picture facing north and the building that we currently occupy right now, 100 Mile Brewing.
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It was built in 1974.
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So the building you can see it from Manzanita, my dorm room.
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So I found it just a year ago.
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Two years ago, when I was moving my parents out, I was looking through old photo albums and I saw Manzanita with the triangle windows, so it's just an iconic building, and I'm like, wait, that's Manzanita.
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And then I looked at it.
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I had it blown up and my building, the brewery building, is in that picture.
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So way back in 1982, it's almost like serendipitous that I had this revelation, that I was going to, you know, open a brewery right there in that location, that's amazing.
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What are some of the surprises or the challenges that you've kind of come across and had to overcome in the last few years?
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Oh geez, where do I start?
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Being an entrepreneur is it's the greatest thing and it's very stressful.
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So all of us kind of all entrepreneurs you know we're horrible employees, we're unemployable really, so we have to create our own jobs and be creative.
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So really the hardest thing is for me was learning the restaurant business and managing 40 employees and putting systems.
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We're doing this overhaul right now, really not an overhaul, we're implementing it because we never had it to overhaul, but it's really to put in systems, and when I mean systems is we have a regimen of putting boundaries and holding people accountable and it's really it's a lot of work.
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It's very painful because we never had that in the first couple years, because basically I had a friend say you know, I said she's another fellow brewery owner and she goes you're not, I feel like I'm drinking water from a fire hose.
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And she said to me well, you're not drinking water from a fire hose, you're free falling from an airplane and I have skydived twice in my life and I'm like you are absolutely right, because this is exactly how it feels everything happened so fast in that first year.
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I didn't know really what I was doing.
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I just held on and had other people guide and it was very fast, very quick and free-falling from an airplane.
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So, yeah, that is now.
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The parachute is open.
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It's a little bit.
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I can think more.
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So now, in thinking and seeing, looking back in the two years of history, is you have to set systems up so people can be held accountable and we call it don't know, don't care.
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So don't know is shame on me as a business owner.
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People can't read my mind, so I have to tell them, I have to train them, and then you train them a couple times and if they're still not getting, the message is that I don't care, and that's when the uncomfortable conversations come in, absolutely.
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So a lot, of, a lot of organizations rely on, like, an external business coach, and you mentioned that the other day when we were talking what have been some of the big things that have been their aha moments, or yeah, I do need to work on that for you.
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You know what his name is, david Scott Peters.
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He's a restaurant coach and he is located he he has clients all over the United States and actually I think he has one in Columbia, so it's outside of the US as well.
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And ironically, he rose on Tempe Town Lake every day, which is right next door.
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I mean, he's local, so he's been in the restaurant several times and I'm going through his program and his programs is what I'm tackling right now is setting these systems and holding people accountable, um, but one of the one of the take-home messages is he has, um, all these spreadsheets so you have to fill out for daily sales reports, waste trackers, um, and then.
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But the one that really hit me was a labor allotment and it's like budgeting you have to the pnls, which I have learned how to read, and but backtracking on labor allotment, your front of house and back of house, because labor is your most expensive thing.
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So you really have to understand it, um, and not copy and paste your schedule.
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So you give your, you give your employees, your managers, a budget and you work back.
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So kind of a light bulb went on when I was going through the spreadsheets and manually entering these.
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So kind of a light bulb went on when I was going through the spreadsheets and manually entering these numbers.
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It kind of made more sense.
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I remember in high school my first job was at a restaurant.
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It was a pizza restaurant and I was always just really geeky about business and grew up in family-owned businesses and such and I always wanted to do their end of year or end of day paperwork for the manager because I liked going through and figuring out the I know, figuring out the labor percentage and like looking at all the numbers.
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I have a job for you, and so like at 16, finally, when I could drive, I because I wasn't allowed to stay clocked in because we would then go over our labor allocation and so I would have to like clock out.
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But I couldn't drive and so my parents like I'm not taking you back just so you can clock in for an hour to do paperwork like this is insane.
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And so once I could drive, I was so excited because I could clock out, go home and then come back at closing and then do the paperwork.
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Later I figured out I was doing the manager's job, but at that point I didn't.
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I felt like it was a gift that they were giving me every time for me to be able to figure out the labor issues.
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Ashley, you are a special person there's a word for it.
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That's great.
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So you have achieved so much, so much recognition from the state and the city and everything you know Businesswoman of the Year all these different accolades what does that mean to you?
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What does that drive you?
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Does it give you a sense of satisfaction, all the above, or how do you feel it?
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Certainly I'm.
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I'm honored to.
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We got in 2023.
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We were named one of the top 10 usa today the top 10 new craft breweries in the us, which, um, after just opening to be recognized from, you know, usa today.
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And then in 2024, hundred mile brewing was recognized as small business of the year.
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We won that award in tempe, which was even to be nominated, and then getting down to the finalists and actually going up and accepting the award was um, gave me a little bit of goosebumps, you know.
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And then um, just this past year in april, I was given the award.
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It was nominated, and then um got the award for businesswoman of the Year in Tempe for 2025, which I had to make sure that they had a check to make sure they were calling the right person up.
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But I mean just looking back.
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You know, first of all, it's an honor and I take that very seriously as a business woman, as an entrepreneur and owner of a business in Tempe, that I'm not only representing my brand and my company, I'm representing the entire city when guests come in because we're right, by Sky Harbor we actually have people's first impressions of Tempe and we also, you know're their last impression as well.
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So it's all-encompassing and I take it very seriously to, you know, just give the best possible customer experience and hospitality that we can.
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And then to get back to the city of Tempe, which I've done some.
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We just did a Hope water drive and proceeds, a bottled water drive that the city uses as a tool to go out in the streets and talk to the unsheltered and homeless, to engage in conversations and see if they want help.
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And then they have some programs to help.
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I've given to the Pat Tillman Foundation Pat's Run.
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We've done Alyssa Serenade's she was a former ASU right, she's a phenomenal human being.
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And we get back to her legacy foundation and then Sun Devil Family Charities, just to name a couple.
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So, yeah, it's important to me to get back and to be a role model, even though it's hard to.
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I'm still learning myself.
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I think the part of that being a lifelong learner in the process like allows people to follow you a little bit easier to write.
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It brings some humility and vulnerability to the conversation and it's it's authentic, it's real yeah yeah.
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I think you know we were all in this together, kind of right, and if I can help somebody out, because I've been helped out a lot by past mentors and friends and they're still my mentors.
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But you know, life is too short.
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You know, and I always say it's beer, I mean literally we have burgers and beer.
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It's not life insurance.
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Sorry for all the life insurance people out there watching this.
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Your tacos are pretty good, though, too.
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No, I used to say that all the time, like when I was at the real estate company for 10 years.
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You know people would be freaking out.
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Like we're selling real estate, we are not curing brain cancer, like it's gonna be okay if this waits 10 minutes, like we're gonna be all right, that's it, I always have to step back and remind myself, um, you know, to step back.
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I go out in the parking lot a lot and look at the building and I just step.
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You know, watch, I just look at the building and go, you've created this.
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You know your team from this 1974, dungy, gross, ugly, sanford and Son type junkyard of a building that we've transformed into something beautiful, so I'm proud of that.
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You just have to step back sometimes, take a deep breath and go.
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it's all going to be okay, absolutely yeah, alyssa was the first person, kind of as I was getting back into all of the ASU things.
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So I was part of the Sunday 100 and so she greeted me when I came to the event on that and then we kind of hit it off and I think that was part of how I got onto the board and counsel for the Alumni Association and then the last six years I've was part of how I got onto the board and counsel for the Alumni Association and then the last six years I've been part of the Alumni Association and so she was a part of that and I think it was almost.
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She was one of the first people that had the idea to do the Leadership Institute for ASU, so she was involved in so much stuff with the Alumni Association.
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So our beer, hey Buddy, it's a peanut butter stout and Alyssa's favorite beer was a peanut butter stout.
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So we were celebrating her birthday two years ago, which is on August 23rd it's this Saturday but we got together with friends and had a celebration of her and then we came up with the idea that we are going to brew a peanut butter stout.
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So you know, her friends go, can you do that?
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And I'm like I own a brewery of course, of course I can so, and she would always call everybody hey buddy, hey buddy.
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So um, we have a beer on tap, um fresh batch just came on a couple days ago, but it's hey buddy, and um a dollar a pint goes back to her scholarship.
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Oh, that's amazing yeah.
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And then she has the golf tournament that we do through ASU in March as well, and so that's a fun tournament too.
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So you mentioned a little bit about accountability and the people aspect of the business, right alluding to that side of it.
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As you think about that, what have been some of the hardest parts as far as being an employer and a leader for people, but then also like a business owner and making sure that you're, you know, looking out for the company as well as bringing the people along for that ride?
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That's a great question and it's something that I have learned how to learn.
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Okay, it's a struggle because you know I'm Iowa, nice, and I want to be nice to everybody, and you know, but at some point you have to separate.
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It's a business At the end of the day.
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You know I'm in this, I have to keep my doors open and I have to be financially responsible and I have to hold people accountable.
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So, and another thing that we have set up is our core values and some people just don't fit in in the core values and that's when don't know, don't care.
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So it's, I just have to separate.
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It's kind of a line down the middle where you're starting to get in that gray area about.
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You know, you're stepping over the don't know, don't care.
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And it makes it easier to have these uncomfortable conversations because I've learned document.
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You know we put systems in place now.
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So if you follow the systems, there's a clear path.
00:19:34.067 --> 00:19:42.892
So I'm not stumbling over myself or, um, I still stumble over myself, but, um, yeah, just, is it good for the company?
00:19:42.892 --> 00:19:44.355
Is this person does it?
00:19:44.355 --> 00:19:46.547
Do they have the best interest of the company?
00:19:46.547 --> 00:19:52.134
And it's just all these questions that you have to ask and unfortunately, sometimes it hurts.
00:19:52.134 --> 00:19:58.513
Nobody likes to let people go, and then I always say too we use the phrase a lot is the right bus, different seat.
00:19:58.513 --> 00:20:01.234
So we try to put people in.
00:20:01.234 --> 00:20:05.193
They're good people and are hard workers, but maybe they're not in the best position.
00:20:05.193 --> 00:20:14.472
Like they're not, we put them in a management or leadership role and they just, they're more of a worker bee kind of.
00:20:14.472 --> 00:20:17.883
So um, just try to you try, I try my best to put people in positions of strength yeah, no, absolutely.
00:20:17.903 --> 00:20:25.549
I would say when people are like it's so hard to you know, let somebody go, or to have a difficult conversation, it's like if it ever gets easy, you've kind of lost the right to do it.
00:20:25.549 --> 00:20:29.435
Oh yeah, like it should be difficult it should be a hard thing to make a decision on.
00:20:29.435 --> 00:20:35.275
And um, yes, the process helps because then you're sitting down and no one's surprised by the conversation.
00:20:35.275 --> 00:20:37.429
Everyone knows that we've had a lot of work to get there.
00:20:37.429 --> 00:20:40.297
That doesn't make the actual conversation no, it doesn't.
00:20:41.426 --> 00:20:43.730
That was a great question so how?
00:20:44.030 --> 00:20:53.013
how has your leadership style changed over the last few years and where do you see yourself as a leader in the future?
00:20:54.096 --> 00:20:54.837
Another good question.
00:20:54.837 --> 00:20:58.493
I have seen I'm more confident now.
00:20:58.654 --> 00:20:58.835
Okay.
00:20:59.326 --> 00:21:06.012
Much more confident in running a company, running a restaurant, and I love the marketing aspect of it.
00:21:06.012 --> 00:21:09.570
I've always you know, beer and marketing, I mean, how fun is that?
00:21:09.570 --> 00:21:22.932
But all the other the payroll and human resources and all that kind of stuff but I'm just, I'm more confident in decisions and I'm able to make decisions now based on numbers and facts, and a lot of numbers don't lie.
00:21:22.932 --> 00:21:26.295
So it's kind of and I understand them a lot better.
00:21:26.295 --> 00:21:37.673
So I think my level of confidence has really grown and that affects my team, because I think in the beginning I was pretty scared.
00:21:37.673 --> 00:21:41.773
I didn't know what I was doing and how can you take someone serious that's scared.
00:21:41.773 --> 00:21:44.411
Now it's like come on, people, let's have fun.
00:21:44.411 --> 00:21:45.374
This is beer, you know.
00:21:45.374 --> 00:21:45.534
Yeah.
00:21:45.974 --> 00:21:46.175
Yeah.
00:21:46.984 --> 00:21:49.390
Look at what this gift we're offering to the community.
00:21:49.390 --> 00:21:52.676
So it's kind of um turning.
00:21:52.676 --> 00:22:00.426
I don't think I was a good leader in the beginning, because I was being led, because I was so new and green yeah now I'm, I'm more confident.
00:22:01.028 --> 00:22:03.310
Do you saw some of those original core people with you?
00:22:03.310 --> 00:22:04.633
We do do.
00:22:05.575 --> 00:22:07.438
There are Caitlin.
00:22:07.438 --> 00:22:08.945
I'm going to give her a shout out right here.
00:22:08.945 --> 00:22:10.008
Go in and see Caitlin.
00:22:10.008 --> 00:22:13.958
She's also from Iowa, okay, and she's been there since the very beginning.
00:22:13.958 --> 00:22:17.355
And we have one of our line cooks for us.
00:22:17.355 --> 00:22:18.800
Yeah, he's been with us.
00:22:18.800 --> 00:22:19.704
I've known him for 10 years.
00:22:19.704 --> 00:22:26.758
So, yeah, there's turnover in hospitality and then in, you know, just opening up, we were new.
00:22:26.758 --> 00:22:31.770
So, again, it's not a fit for everybody and yeah.
00:22:31.770 --> 00:22:37.972
So I think we you know, I said that I'm doing this not transformation but implementation.
00:22:37.972 --> 00:22:45.971
So we now have a solid management team a general manager, two AGMs, we're hiring a front of house and a kitchen manager.
00:22:45.971 --> 00:22:46.633
We have an event.
00:22:46.633 --> 00:22:55.679
So I have a bench, I have a team, yeah, and I have a leadership coach that is helping my management team on some fundamentals.
00:22:55.679 --> 00:23:00.896
So I think we're set up for some good success coming up here.
00:23:01.705 --> 00:23:09.755
Yeah, the confidence really comes from all of those uncomfortable situations, and I can't think of much more uncomfortable than jumping out of an airplane.
