As I compose this most recent blog, I have much to be grateful for.

Eleven days ago, we announced our partnership with EP Carrillo Cigar Co. and the news regarding our first brand, “Four Kicks.” I am fortunate to continue working alongside incredibly talented individuals whom I can also call ‘friends.’ Today, I also celebrate 100 days of marital bliss with my best friend, soulmate, and wife, Laura. Our families are healthy and we look down the road to a bright future. For all of this, I remain humbly blessed.

I am also grateful today for being gainfully employed in an industry that continues to fuel my passion and ambition for creating each and everyday I get out of bed. Saturday, I had the pleasure of being invited as a ‘Special Guest’ to the Chattanooga Tweet-Up 2011. It was a Saturday that involved 5 hours in the car, nearly 2 hours of interviews, and a little time leftover to meet and talk with old friends and new about one of my favorite topics: cigars.

Other attendees came from as far as California, Virginia, New York, Delaware, Texas, and Florida. What drew all of these people together? If you ask me, it is the sheer love and passion for cigars. Cigars are a ‘common denominator’ that can spark conversation, and cross any and all barriers–economic, geographic, demographic, etc. As I’ve said to others, unless you’re “in it” you probably just don’t “get it.” But if you are one of those people that are passionate about the leaf, you understand what I’m saying. And it is this rare feeling of ‘brotherhood’ (and ‘sisterhood’) and camaraderie that remains unique to this business of ours. It is for those same people that will spend their weekends traveling across the country just to convene and share a good smoke with friends that we do what we do here at Crowned Heads. I can’t think of anything more gratifying than to be a part of a team of individuals who create a product that someone ‘out there‘ will one day procure and enjoy. To bring happiness to someone’s life–albeit for 30 minutes to an hour at a time–is success in my book.

So in this spirit of gratitude that I am blessed to be enjoying today, I salute all of you out there–my ‘brothers and sisters of the leaf’–for sharing the common denominator that is a good cigar. Thank you for being there, thank you for supporting Crowned Heads, and thank you for making my Saturday afternoon a nice ‘reminder‘ of why I have chosen this path for the last 15 years and why I continue down that path.

Cheers.