Today we’d like to introduce you to Jason Ridgel.
Jason, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
Guidance Whiskey started with a pretty simple idea. I wanted to create a whiskey that I would actually drink and a brand that felt like the people I actually knew.
I am a Nashville guy. I graduated from Tennessee State University, and so much of my life has been shaped by this city, its people, its music, its entrepreneurs, its neighborhoods and its ability to bring completely different people together.
When I entered the whiskey business, though, I realized pretty quickly that there was a disconnect.
Whiskey has this incredible history and tradition, but sometimes the culture surrounding it can make people feel like they need permission to enjoy it. You need to know the right terminology. You need to understand age statements. You need to drink it the right way. You need to know what is supposed to be good before you can decide what tastes good to you.
I never believed whiskey needed to be that complicated.
Sometimes you just want a good drink with good people on a great night.
That thinking eventually became Guidance Whiskey.
We launched in Nashville in October of 2018. I wish I could tell you that everything took off from there and it has been one straight line upward, but that would not be our story.
Building Guidance has probably taught me more about entrepreneurship than anything I have ever done. There have been great nights, terrible months, opportunities I thought would change everything, doors that closed, relationships that opened other doors, money made, money lost and plenty of moments where quitting would have been easier.
But Guidance kept finding its way forward.
Along the way I also realized that the bottle was only part of what we were building.
People might discover us because of whiskey, but they remember where they were, what song was playing, who they met, what they talked about and how the night made them feel.
That realization changed the way I looked at the company.
We started creating experiences around music, food, art, travel and culture. Guidance Sounds became a place for incredible artists to perform in an intimate environment. Guidance House allowed us to build experiences and partnerships. Guidance World became a way to take the philosophy beyond alcohol altogether.
And through all of it, the compass remained.
Follow Your Compass.
That means something different to me today than it did when we started.
It is about trusting yourself enough to find your own direction. That philosophy applies to life, and strangely enough, it applies to whiskey too.
Drink what you like. Drink it how you like it. You do not need somebody standing over you telling you what you are supposed to appreciate.
Today, Guidance is growing beyond Nashville and introducing itself to people in new markets, but I am actually more interested in building something meaningful than simply being another bottle on another shelf.
I want Guidance to become the whiskey people associate with the nights they never forget.
Because after all these years, I have learned something important.
The bottle matters. But the people around the bottle matter more.
And I think we are just getting started.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
No. It has definitely not been a smooth road.
Guidance launched in 2018, which means we had barely gotten our footing before the world changed. Then came COVID, shutdowns, supply chain issues, rising costs, changing distributors, changing consumer habits and all of the normal challenges of trying to build an independent spirits brand without the resources of the giant companies we compete against.
But some of the hardest challenges were not external. They were learning what business we were actually in.
Early on, I thought if we made a great whiskey, put it in a beautiful bottle and got it into enough stores and bars, people would buy it. I learned that distribution does not automatically create demand. Being on a shelf does not mean someone reaches for you. Winning awards does not guarantee success. Even having people tell you they love your whiskey does not necessarily mean you have built a sustainable business.
You have to give people a reason to care.
That realization changed Guidance.
We stopped thinking only about how to sell whiskey and started thinking about how to build relationships with people. Music became part of it. Travel became part of it. Food, art, culture and experiences became part of it. We started creating the kinds of nights where Guidance naturally belonged instead of constantly trying to convince people to buy a bottle.
There have absolutely been moments when the numbers did not make sense. There have been times when I wondered whether continuing made sense. I have made expensive mistakes. I have trusted the wrong people. I have chased opportunities that looked much bigger than they actually were. And I have learned that entrepreneurship will humble you very quickly.
But I also learned something about the name we chose.
Guidance does not mean you always know where you are going. It means you keep looking for your direction.
That is why the compass means so much to me now.
Eight years into this journey, I am less interested in pretending we have figured everything out. I am much more interested in taking everything we have learned and building the company smarter.
The struggle actually gave us our strategy.
We do not have to become the oldest whiskey. We do not have to become the biggest whiskey. And we certainly do not need to tell people there is only one correct way to enjoy whiskey.
We want to become the people’s whiskey.
Approachable. Good. Unpretentious. Connected to culture. A bottle that can sit at the table whether you have been drinking whiskey for thirty years or tonight is your first glass.
So no, the road has not been smooth.
But if it had been, I am not sure Guidance would have become what it is becoming.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Guidance Whiskey?
Guidance Whiskey is a Nashville born American whiskey brand built around a simple belief: whiskey should bring people together, not make people feel like they do not belong.
We make an approachable American whiskey that is smooth enough for someone discovering whiskey for the first time, but has enough character for someone who has been drinking it for years. You can drink Guidance neat, on the rocks, with Coke, in a cocktail or however you like it. We are not interested in creating rules around how people are supposed to enjoy whiskey.
That is probably what separates us most.
The whiskey industry loves to talk about age statements, tasting notes, awards and all the things that make whiskey interesting. We respect all of that. But we believe the most important part of drinking whiskey is usually not the whiskey.
It is who you are drinking it with.
Guidance has always been about the people around the bottle.
That philosophy has allowed us to build a brand that lives at the intersection of whiskey, music, food, travel and culture. In Nashville, we have created experiences like Guidance Sounds, bringing artists and people together for intimate live music experiences. We have poured Guidance at everything from neighborhood gatherings to major cultural events. We have traveled with the brand, introduced it to people from completely different backgrounds and watched the same thing happen over and over again.
People connect over a drink.
I think Nashville is the perfect city for a brand like ours because Nashville understands hospitality. People come here from all over the world looking for a great night, and somehow strangers end up becoming friends.
That is the space I want Guidance to own.
The whiskey from the city where great nights happen.
What I am most proud of is that after nearly a decade, Guidance still feels human. We are independent. We are still learning. We are still growing. And the people who support Guidance have actually helped shape what the brand has become.
Our compass represents that journey and our philosophy is simple.
Follow Your Compass.
We are not trying to tell people what direction they have to go. We are building a brand that encourages people to trust themselves enough to find their own.
Ultimately, I do not want Guidance to become a whiskey people buy because someone told them they should know it.
I want Guidance to become the people’s whiskey.
The bottle you bring to the cookout. The bottle behind your favorite bar. The bottle at the celebration. The bottle somebody introduces you to while traveling. The bottle sitting on the table when a regular night somehow turns into a story you are still telling ten years later.
That is Guidance Whiskey.
Where we are in life is often partly because of others. Who/what else deserves credit for how your story turned out?
There is absolutely no version of the Guidance Whiskey story where I get to take all the credit.
First, my family and my friends. They have been there before Guidance had customers, distributors, events or any of the things people see today. They bought bottles when I needed sales. They showed up to events when I needed a crowd. They shared posts. They introduced me to people. They listened to ideas that probably sounded crazy at the time. More importantly, they have been there during the parts of entrepreneurship that never make Instagram.
Then there is another family I have gained through this business.
The community of small, local and minority owned wine and spirits brands that have come up together.
People might assume we are all competitors, but that has not been my experience. We share information. We make introductions. We talk about distributors. We tell each other about opportunities. We warn each other about mistakes. If somebody finds an open door, a lot of times they are reaching back and telling somebody else how to get through it.
The Tennessee Minority Owned Wine and Spirits Association, TMOWSA, represents a lot of that spirit for me. I have had the privilege of serving as president, but what I love about the organization is that it recognizes something I learned a long time ago. There is room for more than one of us to win.
And I cannot answer this question without talking about Ms. Rosetta Miller Perry.
Ms. Rosetta was the founder, publisher and CEO of The Tennessee Tribune. She was a civil rights pioneer, entrepreneur and a force in Nashville for decades. She passed away in June 2026 at 91 years old, and Nashville lost somebody who did not just talk about creating opportunity. She created it.
One of the places where I experienced that personally was through the Tennessee Tribune stores at Nashville International Airport.
Think about what it means for a small minority owned brand to be sitting inside BNA where people from around the world can discover it.
Ms. Rosetta made room for that.
Her stores deliberately brought local and diverse suppliers into the airport. Guidance Whiskey was one of those brands, and at the first Tennessee Tribune airport store, Guidance became its top selling diverse supplier.
I will never forget that.
For a company like ours, being in an airport is bigger than selling a bottle. Somebody from California, New York, London or anywhere else can land in Nashville, discover Guidance and take a piece of our city home with them.
Ms. Rosetta understood the power of access. She did not just say she supported minority businesses. She put our products on the shelf.
That is a legacy.
So when people ask who deserves credit for Guidance still being here almost eight years later, the answer is a whole lot of people.
My family. My friends. Our customers. The bartenders who recommended us. The retailers who gave us shelf space. The other entrepreneurs who shared what they learned. TMOWSA. And people like Ms. Rosetta Miller Perry who opened doors that were big enough for more than just themselves to walk through.
Guidance may have my name on the paperwork, but this journey has never belonged to me alone.
Pricing:
- 49.99
Contact Info:
- Website: https://Guidancewhiskey.com
- Instagram: Guidancewhiskey
- Facebook: Guidancewhiskey
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