Co-Owner, Crude Spirits
Branches Served:
- Air Force Reserves
- Air National Guard (ND, WA, MN) and
- Active Duty (36 years and counting)
Q. What was deployment like?
A: Hot and busy. We did an amazing amount of work on our base in six months, providing bed-down facilities that expanded the capacity of the air base to four times the original. The work kept us from being too homesick. We ended up building a wood-fired pizza oven out of construction residue and spent a lot of time around it in the evenings. I had a senior officer, a deputy group commander, who mentored me when I was in the desert, which was a real blessing. I was able to stay in touch with my family through internet video calls by waking up at 4 a.m. I missed my youngest daughter’s first birthday and her first footsteps but we had a great reunion trip upon my return that we still reminisce about today.
Q. What was your first job after service and what was that experience like?
A: After my original stint on active duty, I completed a BS in Mechanical Engineering at NDSU and first started working as a Test Engineer for the Melroe Co. in Bismarck, ND. I fit right in with most of the older engineers, showing up early and leaving late since I didn’t have anything else in my life at that time.
Q. Did you have any struggles after returning to civilian life?
A: Family reintegration after deployment was the only obstacle that took any significant time and effort to overcome.
The deployment did provide a very close-knit community with good camaraderie and a constant focused effort that is very difficult to replicate in civilian life. I’m able to maintain a little of that by continuing to serve as a citizen soldier in the reserves. I enjoy the work as an advisor to Air Forces Central and natural disaster response for Air Force Installation and Mission Support Center where my decades of military and civilian experience are real assets.
About Art Weidner
Art Weidner grew up in Fargo and spent a dozen years away professionally before moving back with his family to raise his children here. Art is “a husband and a father and who trys to juggle a bunch of other stuff.” He makes and distributes North Dakota Sweet Crude and Sweet Crude Orange liqueurs in the tri-state region.
A college friend and Weidner grow hops near Sabin, MN for the local breweries. He does a little specialty construction and his family grows and sell a little produce for the local market. Weidner is a volunteer for Grace Lutheran School and his congregation.
This time of year, his thoughts turn to hunting.
His military and professional careers have taken him around much of the world and have afforded him a lot of opportunities for travel.
“I have worked for some of the largest global corporations and some local companies too,” Weidner said. “Engineering is a great foundation for a career.”
Q: Can you tell me about your company?
A: Crude Spirits started making North Dakota Sweet Crude liqueur almost seven years ago. It was a Weidner family recipe that started with my great-grandfather Martin Weidner when he immigrated as a German from the Ukraine to western ND in the early 1900s. My brother and I learned how to make it from our father and we would give away bottles to landowners who let us hunt their land. We found that we got more requests than we could supply from my kitchen so I looked into how to scale up and what it would take to make it into a legal business.
It took three years to bring the product to market and another three years to bring our second product, Sweet Crude Orange to market. We are working on a third product but that is going to take a lot longer as it is going to require considerable amounts of ageing.
Q: Did you plan to start your company before enlisting in the service?
A: I have always had a small business or two of my own. I started growing and selling vegetables when I was eight. The businesses have grown, shrunk, and morphed as my available time and opportunities have changed throughout my life. Some businesses failed. I’m always on the lookout for an opportunity to learn, grow, create, and build something new and valuable.
Q: What does a normal day on the job look like for you?
A: Whatever the customers need is what the next day looks like. I don’t think there are too many normal days unless I’m at a trade show or doing some sampling at a liquor store. Liquor production is done in batches so it isn’t every week. The spirits business is fairly cyclical so there are slow and fast seasons which hopefully mesh with the cycles of construction and farming.
Q: How did your family react when you told them you were pursuing service?
A: Nobody had any doubt. I had been pursuing several different avenues of entering military service. I was awarded two, full ROTC scholarships and an appointment to a military academy before they were all rescinded because they found that I had an incident of eczema in my medical history when I was twelve. A few months later, I decided to check with the ND Air National Guard if they could take me in. When the doctor examined me he couldn’t find any evidence of the eczema and so in I went.
Q: What do you remember about your first day of business?
A: I remember how relaxed the atmosphere was, with low stress and freedom to make more decisions and mistakes.
Q: Has your service experience changed your business mindset?
A: I would say that it definitely inspires me to work harder in my civilian business. I would also say that my business experience has had a greater impact on my military service than the other way around. Every time I see Air Force Civil Engineers from the Guard and Reserve integrate with the active duty units, I see those active duty units benefiting and getting better.
Q: What was the hardest challenge in opening your business?
A: Equipment scale-up was the biggest challenge. I partnered with the Mechanical Engineering department at NDSU and have sponsored several student projects over the years. We modified some equipment and designed and built our own in other cases. We are always looking to improve reliability and efficiency so we can keep costs down.
Q: What does being a veteran symbolize to you?
A: The Air Force’s core values are pretty elemental: Integrity First, Service Before Self, and Excellence In All We Do.
Q: Who are your biggest mentors?
A: My wife, Cari, is really the only individual mentor I have at this point. There are some organizations that I rely upon for learning and personal growth that make available all sorts of resources and teachers.
Q: What advice do you have for other businesses out there?
A: Work at making friendships in business. Relationships will always result in long-term growth. The work that I do should always bless you and me.
Q: Do you have any book recommendations?
A: Any book by David McCullough, but I’d recommend “Talent is Overrated” by Geoff Colvin.
Q: What advice do you have for others considering enlisting?
A: I recommend some service for everyone, even if it is only three years.
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