#83 The Reality of Building a Brand in Public

What does it actually look like to build a brand in real-time before you even have a product to sell? In this episode of the Rectified Podcast, Sandy sits down with Martin McNicholl, a former Canadian Armed Forces member and tech entrepreneur who exited his successful cloud solutions company to start a whiskey distillery. Martin is currently in the "waiting period". He’s documenting every step of the process long before the first bottle hits the shelf.We dive deep into why documenting is the ultimate marketing strategy for modern founders, the importance of standard operating procedures (SOPs), and Martin's philosophy on why "Sales is vanity, Profit is sanity, and Cash is king."In this episode, you’ll learn:The Power of Building in Public: Why Martin is acting as a media company first and a distillery second.The "Stop Doing" List: A productivity hack for entrepreneurs to scale by delegating what they hate.Transitioning Industries: How to bring skills from the military and tech into the world of physical products and agriculture.Managing the "Critical Path": How Martin used project management to fix production bottlenecks in the distillery.Surrounding Yourself with Experts: Why you don't need to know everything if you know who to ask.If you are a product founder or an entrepreneur currently in the "unpolished" phase of your journey, this conversation will give you the perspective you need to keep building.⚡️Join the waitlist to be notified about our monthly workshops ➡️ https://learn.rectified.co/2026-workshop-waitlist⚡️Join the Scale Partner Community, a FREE space where founders connect, exchange ideas, and support each other ➡️ community.rectified.co/scalepartnerDistillerie des Cantons’ Website: https://www.distilleriedescantons.ca/Martin on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/martinmcnicoll/Find me here: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sandydedeian/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@sandydedeian LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandydedeian/⚡️Subscribe to our Substack and receive the podcast in your inbox ➡️ https://sandydedeian.substack.com/Chapters: 00:00 - Introduction: Meet Martin McNicholl 04:50 - The Trigger: Why Martin Left a Secure Career to Start a Business 07:30 - The Risks of the Service Industry vs. Product Businesses 12:40 - The Power of SOPs: Bringing Military Discipline to Whiskey 15:00 - Exiting a Tech Company 18:45 - The "Aha" Moment in Scotland: Why Start a Distillery? 25:30 - Why Every Company Must Be a Media Company First 28:45 - Managing the 3-Year Wait32:15 - Sales is Vanity, Profit is Sanity, Cash is King 36:00 - Using Tech & Data to Optimize an Old-World Industry 41:20 - Solving the "Critical Path" in Production 45:10 - Martin’s Advice for New Product Founders 48:30 - Life is a Road, Not a Destination