Life overwhelms us with numbers. They float around us constantly – reminding, pestering, stressing. How many days till my doctor’s appointment? Why do I get the same number waiting in line? How many calories did I burn?
But can a number inspire? Can it guide? Can it help form a vision?
Blane Huff thinks so. And if you doubt him, you better first check out the massive success his Lucky29 Liquors has created, a master blending company that he started in Las Vegas in 2020 that bottles 29 different liquors of his own brands.
It wasn’t by chance that Huff picked number 29 in naming his business. Turns out, 29 just weirdly seemed to pop up everywhere he looked.
“Man, I’d see that number everywhere,” he says. “Whenever I’d look at my clock it was always 1:29 or 7:29. My grocery bill, when I’d gas up my car, my speedometer, it was everywhere, like it was following me. At the end of that movie Trading Places, when Dan Aykroyd and Eddie Murphy looked up at the stock board and 29 was the last number they saw. The Golden Knights’ first big star, Marc-Andre Fleury, wore 29. I saw it everywhere.”
When Huff’s daughter arrived in the world on January 29, “I knew then that whatever I did next had to revolve around that number 29” he says.
So it was that in 2018, Lucky29 was born. Huff originally wanted to bottle and sell an energy drink, with a blend of 29 vitamins and minerals. But the timing was off, Monster and Red Bull were already heavyweights in the energy drink market and the competition was stiff, forcing Huff to pivot.
But to what?
“I was in the medical field, working in a lab in Colorado, and the guy next door was always brewing things and there was always this weird smell,” Huff recalls. “Turns out he was making his own liquor. The guy was a legitimate pastor and he was a huge one at that. He was known as ‘Fat Pastor.’ He’d let me sample each one of his liquors that he distilled in-house, and he gave me an idea to make 29 different liquors under one roof.
Inspired by Fat Pastor, Huff quickly went to work, establishing a business that bottles a wide variety of premium liquors like: vodka, tequila, whiskey, rum and gin.
Soon after, industry accolades and awards started piling up. Huff made good use of his connections in his home base of Las Vegas too, putting his product in front of bartenders, which created a buzz and fueled demand for a local product.
One of those bartenders that Huff started to get to know was a gentleman named “Tony Lodding”, an industry veteran for 13 years, at one of the top gentlemen’s nightclubs located in Las Vegas. As Huff puts it, Tony Lodding has connections with a lot of celebrities, wealthy people, nightclub owners, bartenders and casino personnel. Which made Lodding a big asset to his company. As everyone knows, connections are the key. So Huff hired him in 2020 to join his team as the CSO (chief strategy officer).
Today, Lucky29 liquors manufactures a wide variety of spirits to restaurants, casino and gaming facilities nationwide, who get to put their own labels on the bottles, a practice known as “white labeling” or “private labeling”.
“Lucky29 liquors makes a premium liquor for a less-than-premium price, their customers love it, and more people get to taste our spirits, which we’re really proud of,” Huff says.
Huff was born with an entrepreneur’s spirit. Prior to launching Lucky29 Liquors, he had great success in the medical field, inventing patents and opening a few laboratory testing facilities. But as an entrepreneur would say; standing or sitting is not in our nature, but coming up with new ideas is.
“You don’t just stick with one thing when you’re an entrepreneur,” he says. “You gotta be willing to change, and move through different avenues. You gotta pay attention to the economy and what’s going on. I knew liquor would always be there, especially in Vegas, and I knew I had something unique to offer to our customers.”
Creating something like Lucky29 Liquors takes courage, patience, hard work and sacrifice, with a little bit of Luck helps too.
“Luck is everywhere,” Huff says. You hear it all the time – get lucky, be lucky, take a lucky shot. I’m lucky to be alive, we all are. Like Clint Eastwood said, ‘Do you feel lucky?’ Well, I sure do” and so should we all.
It’s fitting that in numerology, the number 29 is associated with growth, change and new beginnings. It’s also linked to intuition and a desire to help and inspire others.
Huff hopes he’s doing that by using his business in efforts to assist with the homeless in Las Vegas and other communities nationwide.
In the meantime, he says, trust your instincts, wish for a bit of luck and, have a shot or a drink of something spectacular. Remember always, “Do You Feel Lucky?”
