At PCA, surrounded by some of the biggest names in cigars, I expected the moments I’d remember most to be the ones I captured. Turns out, it was the ones I didn’t. This is about building something real, staying present, and learning when to put the camera down and just live in it.
The other day, a buddy sent me a video about art by McKay Williamson.
It referenced a scene from The Secret Life of Walter Mitty…you’ve probably seen it.
Sean Penn is tracking a snow leopard. The kind of once-in-a-lifetime moment photographers live for. The animal finally steps into frame…perfectly….and instead of taking the shot…he doesn’t. Ben Stiller asks him, “When are you gonna take it?” and he responds, “Sometimes I don’t. If I like a moment… I mean me, personally… I don’t like to have the distraction of the camera. I just want to stay… in it.”
Man…that stuck with me.
Last week, we wrapped our first trip to PCA….the Premium Cigar Association’s yearly Trade Show. If you’re in this world, you know what it is. It’s the Super Bowl.
The who’s who of cigar royalty, new product drops, industry direction, legislation, hospitality…everything from seed to ash. And this year, we weren’t just attending…we were there as media.
We met legends. John Huber, Steve Saka, Brandon Marsh, Scott Haugh, Nimmer Ahmad and more. We chopped it up with my guy James Brown and his incredible wife Angela. Matt Booth and I shared another one of those “IYKYK” moments. Kaitlyn met a queen, Karen Berger! We spent late nights in circles with Casa Carrillo, Kristoff, and Oscar Valladares.
Even got some time with the HDA guys…cool dudes.
At one point, Guy Fieri, Mr. Flavor Town himself, was within five feet.
And yeah, there were moments where I thought, hold up…lemme get a picture.
Luckily, Justin Hunter handled a lot of that for us. But the moments that stayed with me weren’t the ones I tried to capture…they were the ones where I was fully present.
It hit me heaviest on day two: our feet were wrecked. We had walked over six miles in boots, delivered the pitch more times than I could count, and earned every conversation inch by inch. We got back to the hotel room, turned the lights off, and collapsed. Kaitlyn usually falls asleep before I even get comfortable, but this time she didn’t:
“Baby?” she inquired.
“Yeah?”
“Can this actually be our life?”
“It already is.” I said.
“No, I mean… I see the path. We can do this, can’t we?”
“We already are.”
“We’re going to have to sell a lot of cigars…” she said as she rolled over.
“I know.”
Then silence. A few moments later, a soft snore.
Lying there, completely worn out, staring into nothing, I thought to myself…this is our life. And it’s beautiful. That conversation is more vivid than any picture I could’ve taken. I wasn’t thinking about content, next steps, or sales funnels. I was just…in the moment.
The next two days were a blur, but certain moments still hit. When Nick from Foundation said, “Yo, you’re the Brolo guy,” I hit him with, “Look… it me!” and kept it moving. No picture, no interruption…he was mid-conversation, and it looked important. But internally, I was losing my mind. Same thing when something similar happened with Huber. It wasn’t loud or flashy…it was a quiet confirmation. Like…we might actually be onto something here.
When I first started dreaming about Brolo, I had a pretty clear vision. I wanted it to be technologically forward, but feel analog. Late ’70s energy…not campy, just cool.
Vintage garage cool. Snip toes and straight cuts. Patina over polish. No velvet ropes. A seat at the table for anyone who wanted one.
And somehow, that’s exactly what this has become.
Our community has grown to over 600+ people, and we’re just getting started. We began hosting weekly virtual herfs because I kept noticing something at lounges….guys would come in, buy a cigar, and leave. And I’d always wonder…who are they? What’s their story? Are they doing well? Are they struggling? Do they feel like they belong anywhere?
What we found is that a lot of people don’t have the time or the place to connect. So we built one. A table. And we invited everyone to it.
Now we learn together, laugh together…hell, sometimes we cry together. People have lost loved ones, lost jobs, made major life decisions…and they didn’t have to do it alone. All because someone showed up. All because we made space.
What most people probably don’t realize is that this is more than cigars. It’s ministry; It’s mental health; It’s social equity…people linking arms and choosing to be present for each other. Yeah, we’re a brand. Yeah, we want to build something great. And yeah, we’ve made like $700 in hat sales 😂. But this is bigger than that.
It’s a lifestyle.
It’s choosing to lean in when life gets hard. It’s letting your inner light cut through dark moments. And through the lens of cigars, we get to Light Up & Lean In. (And yeah…about 60% of the time we’re just roasting each other…but that’s what brothers do.)
The truth is, I don’t want to miss this stage. The small stage. The intimate stage.
Because one day, years from now, we’ll look back and say, man…that was sweet. So we’re fighting to keep it that way.
That’s why we created multiple rooms in the herfs…not for exclusivity, but for inclusivity. Because nothing would bother us more than someone showing up…and not being seen.
There were a lot of moments at PCA worth capturing. But the ones that mattered most? I didn’t capture.
Because like that snow leopard…some moments aren’t meant to be documented.
They’re meant to be lived.
Light Up & Lean In
