Meet Allen Weaver and Adam Allred of Bourbon Fat LLC in Palms

Today we’d like to introduce you to Allen Weaver and Adam Allred.

Allen, Adam, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
One evening a couple of years ago, we had a deep happy hour discussion over a few bacon old-fashioned cocktails. We realized it was time we start listening to our irrational inner-voices & finally act on our ideas of starting a business together where we could take the creative risks we’d been yearning for. Outside of working side-by-side at the same corporations for several years, we each had our own independent businesses. Adam was doing a lot of graphic & web design work, & I was doing executive coaching & business consulting. With a shared value of design & being fed up with the stifled creativity that comes with the corporate environment, we decided to marry our strengths into a company focused on making work meaningful. Our combined 30 years of corporate experience in management plus human resources & another 20 of individual side-hustling set us up for taking a confident, although still terrifying, plunge as a consulting agency with a design-focused edge.

Great, 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?
We learn something new every day. One of the hardest things to learn when you’re starting out is being firm in what your time, expertise, & products are worth. It can be difficult to balance wanting to say yes to new clients, but also establishing your worth without scaring anyone away. We’ve committed to ourselves, however, to always over-deliver & find ways to surprise & delight our clients beyond the agreed-upon deliverables. We really value our client relationships & we love to demonstrate that in thoughtful, creative ways that add a little something extra to what clients initially look for. Sometimes they are scared to take risks, & by giving clients a little extra to show them what the risk could look like helps them be more open when they come back to us again.

The other struggle that isn’t discussed much in all the start-up books or blogs is all the initial set-up & formation of a company, especially as a partnership. Before you can even “open your doors,” there are some significant expenses you must account for to be legit & legally/financially protected. It feels a bit like gambling when you haven’t really made money yet, & there’s never any guarantee that your business is going to take off. But it forces you to double-down on your commitment to the ideas & values you believe in. It’s also a great education in decision-making as a partnership, working together, shared accountability, & learning what all the legal terminology means.

Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Bourbon Fat, LLC – what should we know?
Our purpose is to help companies create the most meaningful & fulfilling workplaces possible. We believe the Employee Experience (everything from recruiting, onboarding, culture, communications, etc.) could use a little more happy hour & a lot less process. After years of fervent professionalism, we’re now unapologetically incapable of the bullshit that gets in the way of doing what’s best for employees & the long-term health of a business.

We’ve learned that the first step in solving most company culture problems is to pull back the rug & see what’s underneath it. We’re ethnographers in a sense that we go out & really get to know the people who are ultimately affected by the solution to the problem we’re solving for. We sit with them. We survey without using surveys. We observe. We ask questions. And, more than anything, we listen. We put those employees at the center of the problem-solving consultation by bringing forward their voices & their ideas. We take great pride in knowing that we empower employees to be a part of the culture-defining actions of the companies they work for.

Bourbon Fat is the manifestation of our desire to form a new kind of consulting firm. We value authenticity, co-creation, human connection, candor, humor, some irreverence, & of course, bourbon.

Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
Patience & intentionality. We try to be mindful of the decisions we make & where we choose to spend our time. There’s an acknowledgement that not everything is going to happen for us at once, & not every decision is going to perfectly correct. When it’s only a two-man show, we must be deliberate about balancing responsibilities & trusting each other. Since both of us have been in corporate leadership roles & have both run our own individual businesses prior to Bourbon Fat, we have interchangeable skill sets when it comes to managing workload & projects, as well as interacting with clients. By being best friends outside of work, we also bring a lot of love & respect for each other to the table. Having that as a foundation makes the high-anxiety of starting up feel more like a wild adventure & less like a tornado.

Contact Info:

• Address: 3425 Motor Ave, Unit 405
  Los Angeles, CA 90034
• Website: www.bourbonfat.com
• Phone: 615.653.2869
• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: @bourbonfat1920
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bourbonfat/
• Twitter: @BourbonFat

Image Credit:
Photos by Eric Garvey, @thephotopeddler

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