Your team is talented. But when the PowerPoint is off and the client is across the table at dinner, or the internal team isn't agreeing on the best next step, most professionals don't know what to do next. That's exactly what we fix, over bourbon and cigars.
For decades, the golf course was where relationships deepened, clients were won, and careers were made. That terrain has shifted. Today's highest value professionals, attorneys, wealth managers, investment bankers, and consultants, are building their most important relationships somewhere new: the whiskey bar and cigar lounge.
These aren't just bars. They are premium third spaces. Private, relaxed, and purpose built for the kind of real conversation that formal meetings never produce.
Business opportunities generated by one client in a single membership lounge in a single year.
Average increase in session engagement scores at Christy's events.
Average whiskey and cigar conversation depth, far beyond any formal meeting.
Non drinkers equally engaged, always. Every guest feels genuinely valued.
These are the professionals whose revenue is built entirely on trust and relationship. The challenge is rarely competence. It's connection.
The challenge is rarely talent. It's that the tools for building real cohesion, developing leaders, and making decisions together have never been as engaging as the problems they're meant to solve.
People remember 5% of what they hear in a lecture. They remember up to 75% of what they experience firsthand. National Training Laboratories, Learning Pyramid
The most powerful professional development doesn't happen in conference rooms. It happens when people are genuinely enjoying themselves, when guards come down, curiosity goes up, and the learning feels like the best part of their week. Research in organizational behavior consistently shows that experiential, emotionally engaged learning drives behavior change that lasts. Christy engineered every session around that principle. The professional outcomes are built in. The fun is not optional.
Credentials in Both Rooms. The Boardroom and the Bourbon Bar.
Christy Pruitt-Haynes spent 25+ years as a Fortune 500 HR executive before becoming one of Nashville's most recognized voices at the intersection of professional development and premium spirits. She has advised Starbucks, Capital One, Nike, and Mastercard. She is a TEDx speaker. And she is a certified spirits and cigar professional with credentials most bartenders don't have.
She is not a motivational speaker who also likes bourbon. She is a credentialed expert in both worlds, and that combination is genuinely rare.
The whiskey lounge as a professional development and deal making venue isn't a trend. It's a recognized shift in how elite professionals build relationships.
A cigar is just a prop to get people to talk to each other. It is amazing how deep people will go in conversations about life issues when it takes an hour and a half to get through a cigar.
The mindset people are in when they're in a smoking circle is unlike any other. It's great networking, and a great culture.
Whiskey lounges are becoming hubs for executives, investors, and decision makers with control over budgets, ideal for client prospecting and closing deals.
It's their utopia. A place where their armor is down, because they're in a comfortable, relaxed space.
Christy not only understands bourbon and whiskey, she is great at connecting with people. A lot of people are great at one of those things. She has mastered both.
The way Christy captivated and engaged hundreds of people and answered every question with a level of expertise and relatability, even to new drinkers, was remarkable.
Six skills built in the most memorable professional development experience your team has ever had.
Know how to order, taste, and talk whiskey fluently at any client dinner. Natural, informed conversation that signals sophistication.
Whiskey creates shared discovery. Use it as the natural on ramp to the client relationships that become your biggest accounts.
Active listening, reading preferences, building consensus. The same skills that win negotiations and deepen trust over time.
The best business developers are the best storytellers. We use the craft and history of spirits to sharpen the narrative that closes deals.
Every guest, drinker or not, from any background, feels genuinely valued. That's the mark of a trusted advisor, not just a good host.
Bourbon and high stakes deals share the same rhythm: deliberate, unhurried, attentive to nuance. Slow down enough to truly connect.
Purpose built for professionals whose most important work happens in relationship, not in a conference room.
Business development, ERG events, associate development, and client entertainment. The whiskey bar is where the billable relationship begins.
Client prospecting, relationship deepening, and high net worth entertainment. The bourbon bar is where AUM conversations start.
Deal making, team culture, LP entertainment, and portfolio company events.
Broker networking, investor relationships, and deal closing entertainment.
Client retention, new business development, and producer team building. Trust is the product.
Business development, referral cultivation, and retainer worthy first impressions.
Every format is designed to deliver maximum impact, from intimate client dinners to keynote scale events for thousands.
The Only Team Building That Ends With Your Company's Own Whiskey
High stakes decisions rarely have an obvious right answer. Neither does picking a barrel of whiskey. That's exactly the point. In this immersive half day session, leadership teams select a single barrel of whiskey for their organization while learning decision making and collaboration frameworks that translate directly to everyday business.
Every step of the selection process, defining the goal, choosing a method, navigating disagreement, and determining final authority, mirrors the high stakes decisions executives face daily. Teams leave with a signature whiskey perfect for client gifts and a framework they'll use long after the last pour.
Every experience is custom. Tell us your group, your goals, and your timeline, and we'll design something that delivers on all three. And yes, everyone will have a great time.