Ask The Expert: Nick Harborne

Our new blog series “Ask The Expert” features a sneak peek into the lives of influencers and media professionals. They share with us their business and marketing secrets that have led them to success in their careers. If you’re interested in learning more about an influencer and/or media professional or have any specific questions you want answered by the experts, let us know by commenting below!

Ask The Expert – Featuring Nick Harborne, Co-Founder + Creative Director, Whiskey Wisemen

What does your morning/evening routine look like?

Well, I like to wake up around 6 am and make my way to the hills for a run or go crush an early morning workout to get the day started. Really gets my mind in the game before I tackle any work. After working out I’ll usually pour a bowl of some super counter-productive sugary cereal like cinnamon toast crunch and crush a couple cups of coffee haha. MORNING COMPLETE!

As for my evenings… I will usually try and get outside to do some photography. I love shooting sunsets as it’s the best time of day to get incredible colours in my photos.

I don’t really watch TV, so I’ll either get out and socialize or find another project to work on before going to sleep. Then, REPEAT!

Who do you most admire? Why?

I admire my peers, my friends and the people I aspire to be. Currently – Dwayne The Rock Johnson would have to be up high on that list. That man is just crushing the world right now and making the universe his b*tch haha! I love watching people succeed beyond anything they could ever imagine and still be so humble about it. Class act right there, AND he loves Tequila… Would love to teach him a thing or two about whisky though haha. And now that I’ve said that… I probably will – WATCH.

In such a go-go-go world, what do you do to unplug?

Photography, I love the sh*t out of photography or anything “F*cking Creative” my new clothing line that I started haha, check it out HERE – But I’ve just had this love for creating things and photography allows me to show something beautiful in a fraction of the time a painting would take. I also love running… Thats my time to just throw some good music on, drown out the clutter of the world and just allow the endorphins to give me a high.

What’s your spirit animal? Why do you identify with it?

Sponge Bob Square Pants. Do I really need to say anymore? Haha, people don’t get why. But, that sponge and his damn square pants is just a hilarious genius!!!

What did your role at Whisky Wisemen entail?

Well… The Whisky Wisemen is a funny and extremely interesting hobby that turned into a living breathing beast of its own. As a co-founder of the business, we started it off as a way for the boys to get together once a month and have a boys night while drinking/learning about whisky. You know, like those “Mad Men” guys and our Grandfathers in their cool suites back in the day… But, I’ve always been in charge of our Creative Strategy – what the brand should look like and what that message is to the world. So, my “title” would be Creative Director. That being said, in 2013 I bought a camera and took it upon myself to start taking cool photos of whisky and posting every day with interesting facts and stories about the whisky. A few years later… We’re at 63K followers and I’m being flown around the world to showcase WHISKY in all its glory to our audience. With all the knowledge I gained taking photos and educating others, I ended up becoming extremely knowledgeable on the spirit and could tell you *Blindfolded* what whisky is what and where it’s from in the world. I also love to give tastings and entertain our Club Wise members whenever possible. I’m also guilty of stealing other brand ambassadors presentations when I feel as if their presenting skills are getting a little dry… haha whisky should NOT be boring.

What steps did you take with Whisky Wisemen to help make it such a success?

Hard work and Perseverance… If you only knew how many times I’ve wanted to throw in the towel and just tell it to kick rocks you’d think I was crazy… But, I just love it too much to ever give up on it and that makes me push it even harder. We have an incredible team of people behind the brand, our CEO Lesley Brown just crushes it and was awarded one of the 30 under 30 spots this year. Kevin Shaw and Jordan Scott are my left and right hands who always keep me in check and keep this “luxury vehicle” of a business rolling. There have been a lot of people involved in this thing. Our board of directors and volunteers are what make this entire thing possible. So I will always raise a glass to them first before taking any credit… It’s a success in my eyes because it’s just so f*cking cool, and everyone who attends our events sees that too. I want a chapter in every city!

What kind of impact do you think social philanthropy can have on the world?

It’s everything. I wish that everything I did had some kind of kickback to a better cause. When I drink a beer, when I buy shoes, when I fill my car with gas. Why can’t it just do something greater than just fill some fat cats bank account? When we developed our signature cocktail – The Wiseman, that cocktail would kick back $1.00 to a local charity. We pushed this idea to every bar in Vancouver and in other cities. We had some decent success with it. But, just not enough traction to make it something a business would push hard to their customers. Shout out to the Irish Heather for always being so incredible.

How can somebody get involved with social philanthropy (either through WW or on their own)?

It’s honestly just having the heart and mind to do so. Everyone can adapt this concept into their own business even if it’s 1% of a dollar. All our partner bars that we work with to do our monthly Third Thursday events give us a 10% kickback of the bar on those nights (how awesome is that!?) We fill their bar on an off night and they help us right back. But, if people think what we’re doing is cool and want the tools to start their own Whisky Wisemen in their own city – we would love to talk to them! Currently, we are in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Miami, The Cayman Islands, and now Los Angeles. We’ve been in other cities as well, but this is something you need to have a passion for to see it succeed. If you’d like to know more, get in touch with us through our website – whiskywisemen.com or send Lesley like 50 emails at lesley@whiskywisemen.com and tell her Nick sent you hahaha.

But, make sure you hit up our Instagram @WHISKYWISEMEN for all the latest and greatest events and content on whisky! Cheers!