Brian Ruffentine

Owner of Garage-East Winery here in Gilbert, Arizona, since 2016. Married with three children living in Gilbert, the best town ever. Retired hero.

---

Episode Transcription

Guiding Growth. Conversations with Community Leaders. In this podcast, we'll explore the human journey of leaders, their stories of humility, triumph, roadblocks and lessons learned. Come join us as we journey together and uncover the questions you've always wanted to know. This podcast is brought to you by the Gilbert Chamber of Commerce, providing resources, connections and belonging for business professionals and modern moments, an event and meeting venue in the heart of Gilbert and at Gilbert Independent, your valley dot net dedicated to serving readers with good community journalism. The Gilbert Independent is a nonpartisan newspaper, an online site that covers our town's institutions, development and events.

Subscribe and follow your valley dot net daily to stay up to date with latest local news. How often do we get a motorcycle gang, the leader of the pack in our studio? Well, actually, it's more frequently than you'd think. I guess it is. What do we have today? Today's guest grew up in Tepe, Arizona was once deemed the world's second toughest firefighter and served the town of Gilbert's Fire and rescue Department for more than 211 years. Retiring as battalion chief in 215. He and his wife opened Garage East Winery here in Gilbert.

And by the way, his wife is a powerhouse as well. And today he enjoys operating their winery and raising his three Children in what he calls the best town ever. Please welcome, Brian Ruffin, welcome. Well, thank you very much. And, um, what an introduction? That sounds great. She's pretty good at making things up for you, isn't she? And you nail that. My wife is a powerhouse. She is the reason for any of our success. So, good stuff. Well, let's get started with what we call rapid fire.

Would you rather find your dream job or win the lottery lottery? Totally. And spend it all lump sum. Yeah, just get it out of the way. Thank you. What is your guilty pleasure? Cigars? Would you rather host a party for all of your friends or enjoy a dinner for two, all our friends? What's on your nightstand on? I don't have a nightstand. So, um, I actually have to put my phone on the floor because I don't have a nightstand and then in the middle of the night I wake up and I look at it but I don't have a nightstand.

Is that like on your Christmas list now? No, it's not. Well, we do have a desire to, but a long story last TV. Show you binged pinky blinders, pinky blinders. Yeah, it's, it's not wholesome. Um, but it's binge worthy and it's pretty great. Ok. Fill in the blank. Success is a journey. Cool. What song makes you smile, Stevie Wonder. Happy Birthday. And if you haven't heard it, you gotta listen to it. It's got a great rhythm and rhyme. Yeah. Are you more cautious or? Bold? Bold. Yeah. No, the opposite of cautious.

What's your favorite rainy day activity? A puzzle? Ok. Cool. Last question. What's one thing? Only one that you're grateful for my wife? She wins all every day at A PS. We're here to help you save energy and money. A PS solutions for business can help you make energy efficient upgrades, more affordable, find rebates at a PS dot com slash business rebates. All right. Well, um, I think we should, I have a few questions for you. Obviously, we have to get into the world's second. Toughest firefighter. Yeah, for sure.

But maybe we should start at the beginning. The first. Wait, wait, who's the first? It was a guy out of Las Vegas and he was just a rock. He was a stud and mind you, this was in 210. This was a hot minute ago. And so, um, fast, you know, go backwards that far. Um, just got it done. Wrestling in college. I was, um, not, I was almost as much of a rock as he was but all that to be said he was in Hawaii. It was a great experience.

Um, I was, it was a, um, kind of like a tough man competition for firefighters. And there was four obstacles or four timed individual timed events and I was leading after the first three by 221 seconds and I lost by 223 seconds. He smoked me. It was a 222 story, um, stair climb fully turned out and shocker, you know, we don't have high story buildings in Gilbert. So I really didn't train. I thought I could just coast through it and he smoked me. So he's from Vegas. I'm sure he's got a successful, he's probably president of something.

If it makes you feel better, it was a 210nd differential. And if Ben were in that contest it'd be a 2100 hour. So, yeah, it, it, it was funny. So the friend at the time made me a shirt, you know, I want a little bit of cash money and we ended up renting Harley's and riding around the island a buddy. Um, but then when I got home they made up a shirt that said world's second, toughest firefighter on the back of it. And you could take that. Yeah, I did that.

I took it. It's the world, what else? But there really was, there was people from all over the place. And do they still have this contest? I don't know. I'm not, I mean, like the competing days are over was, was uh Dugan in that competition. No, Chief was not. Um, now there's other competitions that he could compete in the longest vocal. Alright you grew up in Tempe? Yeah, so my family moved from New Jersey. Um my oldest brother, I I one of four kids um had asthma and so back then the thought was you gotta move to a dry climate and um I don't know if that's still true or not for asthmatics, but anyway, so they moved from New Jersey to Tempe.

Um grew up in kind of the price and um, mcclintock southern area, um, and loved it. I, you know, had a great childhood, um, went to mcclintock high School, um, did all the things that, you know, high school kids. Did. You wrestled trouble. I wrestled. Yeah, that was, um, our wrestling coach made us go out for two sports. So I wrestled, um, didn't have success in it till my senior year and my senior year he made me go out for a second sport. So I did pole vaulting because that was the least amount of running that you could do in track.

Plus you get to go high. Yeah. But I didn't, I think the highest I ever went was like, 10, 5 or something. And that's not high. So, but it was still, you know, I'm a pole vaulter. So, you're like, 1, 19, 1, 25. No. So, my senior year I was small, I was a small kid up until then. I think I, somewhere around. But I, but I think I was like, um, 103 50 something 1 52. Maybe they changed it between when I wrestled and when they do it now. So, which is kind of fun. All my kids wrestle now too.

Or my two boys. And where did you get? My brother wrestled. Um, and I was a very quiet kind of follower type kid. I'm a people pleaser by nature. Um, and I just did it because my brother did it. No real reason. And now your kids do it and I didn't push him. So, yeah, my oldest wrestled and had great success with it and my youngest is now a sophomore at the high school and he's a second year in doing it. So, what your parents do? So, my dad was a, um, computer guy.

So, um, not a wrestler. Not a, no, no, no, no. Um, and my mom, um, besides raising us did every job under the sun to raise us. So they split up when I, um, went into my seventh grade year, junior high and it was a messy situation but he made bad life choices and, and suffered a lot of consequences from that. And mom end up raising all four of us. And so, yeah, a lot, a lot goes out to her. So, ok, so high school then into a Su uh Phoenix College.

So FK um, it's a stellar for academics. So, Phoenix College, um, they offered me a wrestling scholarship. I had a couple of opportunities to go out of state, but I didn't want to, um, I had my eyes focused on becoming a firefighter somewhere through high school and I was kind of fixated on that. And Phoenix College has, at that time, had the best fire science program. And so I gravitated towards that rustled, got my fire science degree and then got hired. And so I graduated from the a, a program at Phoenix College and then transferred over to a su and as I was getting hired with Gilbert, um, I stopped going to classes and I thought I could just mail it in and show up to the finals.

So, you know, I'm still working on that four year degree. Where did the spark come for? Oh, no, pun intended for becoming a firefighter. So, the fun story with that is I was a boy scout, um, eagle scout. But, um, I would go spend my summers at Geronimo up in Payson and one summer they had a fire that was close to camp. And so they rallied up a few of our US counselors and said, hey, we need you guys to go cut line. And, um, so for about a week we kind of protected the camp from this fire that, that was close.

And I think that's what did it because I didn't have any family, nothing that really would have thought I should go in that direction. So that's the only thing I could draw attention to. Maybe I would have thought it would have been like, you know, the calendars or something like that you wanted to get in on that wouldn't sell, sell. Second, toughest firefighter might sell, wouldn't sell. Ok. So you join Gilbert's fire and rescue department in the very early days. So back when rural metro was contracted to serve the Gilbert community, I got hired as a reserve with, with them and, um, it was about a year and a half worth of kind of working part time and, you know, crazy stations out in the middle of nowhere.

And then Gilbert had their one station at that time. Um, and then when Gilbert transitioned to have their own municipal fire department, I got hired on that on that first go around and, um, worked my way up and got hired into a full time for part time to a full time spot to, um, a captain and to a battalion chief and did a lot of fun things. So, yeah, when you, um, those early days, did you ever second guess it? Is there something else you thought maybe I should be doing something different?

I did not, but my wife did my beautiful wife Megan. Um, she, um, grew up in central Phoenix, went, um to American University for a couple of years and then realized she didn't like DC or politics that she thought she would. Um, and then transfer to U of A. She went from living at home to living in college with roommates to meeting me getting married in a very short period of time and then marrying a fireman to where now she's living by herself. And at that time we owned a house in Tempe by the campus and it was, um, Hardy back Broadway area.

So, not a brilliant part of Tempe. And, yeah, so fun story is we live next door to the drummer of the Meat Puppets. The Meat Puppets is an old time local Tempe band. Well, they enjoyed to do the things that rock bands would put into their bodies and we had three homicides in our house next to us um at their house during parties all while I was at work in different times. And she's like, I hate your job. She'd call down and we'd be playing Risk or watching a movie or Monopoly and guys are laughing in the background and she's crying because the cops are all out front or someone's walking through the backyard.

And so she encouraged me and she questioned the, the job of a fireman. Um 24 hour shifts gone for a long period of time. Um But she quickly got over it and has never looked back. So great career. Um um Very nice retirement. Um After that, it's, and afforded me to do the chapter B so the next, the next page. OK. But so the fire, it's a brotherhood. And uh so there's a lot of things you gotta learn through that process. Talk about some of the mentors that took you through that for sure.

So, um and this is another thing that may have led me into it is that through my boy scouts and the Eagle Project, um uh Chief Gaines out of Tempe was my Eagle sponsor. And so he was a mentor for me of getting me into the stations and meeting guys and riding on the trucks and at, at a young age, at 17 years old. And so that was the first one. The next one was Dick Rambo. He was a um assistant chief for um Tempe and then Gilbert and then he since passed away this last couple of years, but um just a solid guy solid in his faith, solid in his family, um really cared about the community and service and probably where I got the most out of what it means to be a servant.

Um So that was on the fire side and then the other side is um through high school and sense. I um was exposed to young life um which is an outreach program for high school kids. Um had some great leaders that just invested in me. My dad wasn't around, uh my brother was around a little bit, but then he went off to college and went to work and he was seven years older, but um just teaching me how to be a servant and how to you know, care for others through actions and, and doing stuff.

And I think that's what translated well through the fire department because that's really all we are is just serving the community, you know, doing things and people's worst possible moments. Um Hopefully helping, hopefully making their day a little bit easier and a little bit brighter and I'll transition that over to Garage East and be in a hospitality. It's just service. It's just making people a little bit better than what they came. Different kind of hospitality. A little bit like, let's go into that a little bit. Like, so how did that come to be this whole Garage East thing?

So, um Oh, wow, we've been open seven years. It'll be seven years in November. Um probably about 11 years ago. So four years before we opened, we reconnected with um high school buddies of, of Megan's of my wife's. They um all went to Sunny Slope High school and kind of as life takes people in different directions, we lost contact of them. And it was actually um her sister ran into them when they went down um to experience wine country in southern Arizona. And they're like, hey, you remember Todd and Kelly Bostock, they, they opened a winery and so we reconnected with them and reestablished that friendship that they had from high school and we'd go down there and we'd help them with harvest and we'd go down there and help them um clean bins and, and stomp on grapes and do all the things, but really just went down there to have fun and be as much help as we could.

Joe Johnston pillar in the community um was having his vision and dreams for his next project within a grat topia. It's now called Bar None or Barn One. We call Barone because most of our grapes are Italian um background. So Barone Joe was pursuing Todd and Kelly to do something in that project. Um Joe fell in love with Arizona wines by drinking what Todd and Kelly made and really was pushing hard and, and we live in the neighborhood and we know Joe and Cindy really well and we're like, Joe, you gotta get them.

It would be so cool to have them up here not thinking that. Well, Todd and Kelly, they're, they were running a winery in Southern Arizona. They're raising their kids down there. They're, they're, they're living their lives down there. They can't just do something up here and we would go down there and help them with harvest and play and have fun. And Patrick Melinda would come down with us or Megan's sister and brother in law. Um We'd be down there and we're like, you gotta figure out a way and they kind of set their teeth into Todd's brother, like maybe my brother can do it, he could run it.

We'll make the wine down there. And so we're like, yeah, let's do that. We organized a big party at our house and trying to get everybody together to make this, you know, look appealing and he didn't show up. He's like, no, I'm not doing this and, um, you know, fast forward a good amount of time and, and, um, we're down there and we're working and drinking and, and relaxing and drinking and, and, um, Ty was like, you're ready to retire. Why don't you just do it? And I'm like, that's a great idea.

And so that was the first domino to fall and between Todd and Kelly making great wine and um loving Southern Arizona and being able to make something out of Arizona and promote Arizona and promote Arizona wine in an industry that not a lot of people had known about then being involved with a project that Joe seemingly might just touch guy. Um having it being in our neighborhood and in our community that we love so much. All those came together to go. Yeah, it makes sense. I'm gonna stop being a firefighter.

I'm gonna retire as a battalion chief. Great pension. I'll be able to do that. Megan um was in a position of her time with her career that she was able to pivot and we just went for it. So it's honestly fascinating to me to look at all of the little nuances within that journey that had to have lined up for that to work for Sure, it's amazing. And now you at seven years in, are experiencing such success. You're a staple of that, that entire development. Well, thank you.

It's been an incredible ride and, you know, in a, I used to think, you know, I'm a battalion chief with the fire department. I'm a leader. I'm a leader in the community. I didn't know anything about being a leader of uh, of a restaurant or a staff and, and we're, we're a winery. So we are licensed as a farm winery. We make our own wine, but we really run and operate like a, like a wine bar or a restaurant, even in the sense that we've got staff and we've got staffing issue and we've got lease and we've got tenant issues and we've got all these things that I thought, oh, I just figure it out.

And what I realized is I was a, a really good leader of people that were easy to lead of, of people that knew what they were doing. Um And one of the things that, you know, there was a huge learning curve for the first couple of years living so close. So we live in Agri Topia and we lived literally a two minute bike ride to from door to door. Um I didn't teach anyone how to solve problems. And one of the best things that I've taken from that is you, you really have to, to teach them how to recognize the problem and problem solve for themselves.

And what I did on the first, you know, handful of years was whenever there was a problem, they'd call me and I'd run down there as fast as I can and I'd fix it. And I'm like, all right. Ok. We've got gas, the wine's pumping. We're, we're all good. Um, but, you know, I wore myself ragged and I didn't do them any favors. And so is this resonating? I was going to say this is a message for all business owners and leaders like you do fall into that trap of it's easier, it saves time to just do it yourself. Right.

But then you really have to, if you really want sustainability and you really want to invest in the people that you're employing, you got to take the time. I would say a lot of owners have that person mindset. And so you have this ideal of how it should go and so you step in and do it because you want to make sure it gets that mark for your customers. Right. Exactly. Yeah, I want, I want customer experience to be number one always and everywhere and so it needs to be done.

Yeah, I, I totally get that and, and I think I fell into that trap one because I was so close. If I had lived 15 minutes away, you know, I couldn't come to the rescue. I couldn't be the hero. Now, I'm just the wino. But anyways, um you can still be the win. Exactly. Um But I've, but I've gained an appreciation for the opposite of that, of being able to build a team to, to be able to replace yourself. And um my son, I, I love him. He's amazing.

I got three kids. Um AJ is the oldest lie and then Luke AJ is this entrepreneur, brilliant mind um gonna, gonna shoot the moon for sure. Um So he's having me read all these 10 X books and all these things and, and he's like, dad, you gotta replace yourself. You gotta, you gotta, you gotta make Garage East where they don't even need you. And I'm like, how old is he? He's uh he's 21. He'll be 22 next month or December. So, but, and you're like, well, I have you, you're gonna take over. Exactly. Yeah.

Yeah, exactly. So he's motivated me to work out again. He's motivated me to eat better and although we still do the cigars in Burman gotta have life around you. Exactly. Yeah. OK. So you're a business owner now and you're doing this stuff. You hadn't really done that before. Yeah, you've been a leader in a different world, as you mentioned, but who's helping you through this stuff? Is it Joe? Is it somebody else who's mentoring you to build this business? So it's funny that we started with the gang with the motorcycle gang.

Um I've had the the, the pleasure of having amazing relationships throughout all my life. And they, they, um, some have been in there since high school. Like, I've got a core group of guys that are just great and they're all doing their journeys through their own businesses and we, we bounce things off one another. We grow that way. Um The relationship that I've been able to cultivate with us now with the motorcycle gang. Um they, the club, it's not a club, it's a gang and it'll always be a game.

We, um, they're, they're brilliant businessman, you know, you know, obviously you, you know, Patrick, well enough to know that he's great at what he's doing in the town. But what he brought before that was amazing business sense and rich is, is a rock star and in lots of regards, um JW, I'm getting to know better and, and more and, and, you know, his optimism and, and just total encouragement of everybody around him is so just enticing to be able to draw on the things that they've gone through to build their businesses up and build the town up.

And I've been able to, to relay on that. Um, my wife Megan is a scholar. She could, she would go to school for the rest of her life if she could figure out how to make it happen. She's got four degrees, one being, she's a lawyer, so she's got her law degree. She doesn't practice law. Right now, but she's just brilliant and she thinks, uh, as something more technical you ask the question, am I more bold or am I or more, what was it cautious or? Um, she's the cautious side of this.

She's the one that asks the questions of, is this the right way we should be going? Is this the right thing that we should be doing? Yeah. I mean, it's good to have the balance, the risk taker and she's the Yeah. So, um it's been great Todd and Kelly through. Um them being in the wine business have gave us an amazing ability to not make mistakes if we were just starting out from scratch. So there is a lot of peace in that and a lot of learning to the wine industry is completely different wine laws and liquor laws and all that stuff had no idea about, um, drew a lot on them.

Um And then just, you know, just putting your elbows together and working hard, totally making lots of mistakes and learning from them. Right? Do you still enjoy wine? Like, let's be honest sometimes when you make your passion, your business, that can be a challenge. That's a silly question that's going on. Yeah, I can't believe she's just said that. I know. So I, I really thought long and hard how much I was gonna be honest with you guys and, and what I share. So one of my most um enjoyable times with garage is I go there in the morning and usually every morning as long as we're in town and I'll hose off the patio and I'll water the plants and I'll pour myself a glass of breakfast wine and yeah, it may be early.

Um, but it's breakfast wine and it's ok. But yes, I still enjoy wine very much. Well, the thing is that if you don't start drinking early, you can't say you drink all day. So you got to start. Yes, there is. There. Is that, so did you point that phrase? Because that sounds like something you could live by. I think it is from the family for sure. Oh Yeah. No, I have not grown tired of the product that you're passionate about. So that's good. You got other things you mix in there too.

So OK, what's going next then? So this is going well, are you going to try this to the sunset or what's the, you know what? That's, that's a great question. So um I mentioned AJ earlier and Ellie actually too. Um He's studying entrepreneurship and business management. She's studying um entrepreneurship with a um bend towards finance and they, we, we're tasking them with the ability to take us to another level. And so we've got a couple of things that we make that um we feel like it could go to market and I've been scared by that notion yet.

They're younger and um have a little bit more ambition to maybe make some risks and movement of it. So I would think that's next. We have no desire to open a second location. You know, when we were first opened, people were like, oh, you got open in Scottsdale. Yeah, that would be so great over in, in the West Valley. And I think what makes Garage East great is that when it's in Gilbert and Gilbert is awesome in and of itself and our customer base is solid. But I think what also makes it great is our presence in our presence there.

And I don't, I don't have a desire to, to try to reproduce that someplace and then have it not be the same somewhere else. And so what we feel like we can do is take a couple of our products and, and kind of blow those up and, and send those out and I'm talking about our breakfast wine, which I haven't met anybody that doesn't like it. Um And then our Sonoran Spritz, which is our house made. We make a, a Campari in our um 22 different herbs and spices, blend it with a natural grape spirit, amazing bittersweet cocktail over ice kind of stuff.

So it's like a northern Italy spritz, but our take on it, it's amazing and there's been a lot of growth recently with the additions that have been just recently completing over there in that area there. Have you seen a big influx because of that. So, um, it's too soon to tell for that. So, um, the LA there's still a couple of places that need to open up. Um, and they're, they're moving in a great direction and I truly believe that the more around us, the more popular we'll become, um, I, I don't fear competition.

I don't, I don't think that, um, that, that'll hurt us at all. It'll just bring more attention to the area and people will find us because they're like, oh, there's a wait there, let's walk around and then, oh, look how cool this place is to hang out. Exactly. And then the corner on the south side is, um, under construction. Now they're starting to move dirt on a similar project where it's, um, multi use on the bottom floor, residential on the top floor. So it'll, it'll be more people drawn into the area.

That would be great. Yeah, that's fantastic. Yeah. So, um, curious your advice for business owners who are just starting out, maybe they're looking at doing something like this. What would you tell them? For sure. Um, it, we, um, went into this scrappy and I think that's probably a, a characteristic that you have to have. You, you gotta be able to know that it's gonna be hard. But if you're scrappy and you, um, have a, a product that you're gonna put out there that you feel and, and truly value and believe will be a benefit to somebody else.

Um, and you're just scrappy about it. Um, you just gotta, you just gotta do the work. Um, one of the things that I've constantly, over the years and that I've drawn from my time with the fire department is customer service. Like, how do we, how do we make our customers feel better than when they, um, when they leave, when they got here? And if, if we are continually striving to make that happen, of having our customers feel better when they're leaving as before they got here, um, we're gonna be doing something. Right.

And so, and they'll keep coming back and they'll tell their friends about it. They'll become apostles for us is really what it is is that, you know, they're gonna go out and spread the good news about Garage East and how that translates into whether someone's gonna be opening up a breakfast joint or a tuxedo shop or whatever. You just gotta be scrappy and you gotta, you gotta figure out what the value that you're putting forth and how that'll impact your customers and be passionate about them being better for it.

Then you just gotta do the work. But listen, listen, I, you know, I don't know how many times you've had to iterate and change what you thought was the right thing. But then you heard your customers and you're like, wait, yeah, that's the way they want it. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Well, I, I really appreciate your, I mean, you have, you have two successful careers and it's, it's been amazing to watch you and to learn more about you today. I'm curious as you look to the future. Um, what do you, what do you hope to gain, looking back?

So, let's, let's go maybe five years in the future and you look back and what do you hope that you're, you're observing or taking away from today? Well, that's a great question. And, and one of the things that I was able to participate in is I, I, I had a mentor and I didn't even include it in your thing because it was such a part of my life. But we would, we would go through models of what do you, what do you want? Five years to look like?

What do you want? 10 years to look like? What do you want? And in one of the, the books I don't read. So I'm so grateful you guys didn't ask me what books I'm reading. Um But what I listen to on audible from what people recommend is the outlive um Peter at Tia at, I don't know if I'm saying his name, right? Um One of the things that he mentions is about being a centennial and how to live healthy life. So you can live to be 100 and you get all the way through all these things and recommendations and the bottom line is, um it's great to live that old.

As long as you've got people around you that respect you and care for you. And, um, and kind of phrases it is if, if I'm a total jerk and idiot to all the people around me right now, why do I want to live that long? And so the look back, um, for five years is that I still have great friendships, an amazing marriage. My kids don't hate me. Um And our business is thriving and serving our customers and people still say, oh, let's go to garage. It's a great place.

They got live music tonight. Let's go hang out on their patio and you can still go spray out the patio in the morning and have your breakfast while. Yes. There you go. Thank you very much. Thank you. Hey, this has been awesome. Thank you for sharing with us. Your journey is amazing. I'm looking forward to going over there again. It's been a while since I've been there. So I gotta go. So I'm gonna go there tonight, I think because we have a date night tonight. So there you go even better.

Hey, but if you love this show, like we do and it's been a good episode, join our tribe, subscribe. So you get these in your inbox and we will make sure we keep bringing some great people like like you. Oh, thank you very much. It was a pleasure to be here and this was fun. Thank you, guiding growth, conversations with community leaders. Ben, let me ask you a question. How do you see other community members being involved in this podcast? This is going to be a great opportunity for so many people in the community to have a chance to be heard if they want to tell their story or if they just want to be part of this journey with us and help sponsor in a way that helps bring more people to the table with us.

So I think there's many opportunities at hand whether you want to again be on the show, reach out to us, let us know what your story is and how you think you could be part of it. We'd love to hear from you, reach out, let us know and we'll see if we can make that connection.