Kim McLaughlin has followed a winding professional path chasing his entrepreneurial ambitions.

The 58-year-old Marine Corps veteran left the service to embark on life as a dairy farmer in the early 1980s. Then he moved to Pennsylvania five years ago to work for a startup company in the oil and gas industry.

After being laid off amid the downturn in energy prices, McLaughlin is on to his fourth career: making spirits.

McLaughlin opened his Sewickley distillery, McLaughlin Distillery, in February and has been navigating the regulatory and production challenges of making and selling his bourbon, vodka and moonshine in Pennsylvania.

McLaughlin spoke with the Tribune-Review about his latest venture and offered advice to anyone switching jobs. An edited transcript follows:

Trib: You've had a winding career. Why choose to open a distillery?

McLaughlin: It started out as a hobby. I could see the handwriting on the wall with the oil and gas industry, the price of oil was going down, that affects the price of gas, of course. I could see that ... it wasn't something I could retire from for several reasons. So I was hoping to transition into retirement (from the oil and gas industry) and do this, but the new owners had different ideas. So I guess I got shoved into it earlier.

Trib: Was that the first time you've ever been laid off?

McLaughlin: Yeah. Actually.

Trib: How did you react to that?

McLaughlin: I wasn't really surprised, because other people around me were getting laid off. It's just market conditions. I didn't take it personal.

Trib: So why start your own business?

McLaughlin: Other than the Marine Corps, I've always been in business for myself. It wasn't really that foreign to me to be in business. The distillery business is highly regulated. But I think it's at the beginning of the curve. I think distilling is where breweries were seven or eight years ago.

Trib: So did you open the distillery because of the market opportunity or because you subscribe to the notion of do what you love?

McLaughlin: Probably both. I do it because I love it. It's not only the spirits, I make barrels too. It's kind of a business within a business. I think there's plenty of room for craft distilleries at this point. There's not a lot of them in the area. I don't have a lot of products but I'm proud of what I make.

Watch a video with Kim McLaughlin, of McLaughlin Distillery, talking about pursuing his passion

Trib: What have been the trade-offs that you have had to make in pursuing something that you love to do?

McLaughlin: The trade-off is that for a period of time you give up your life. The 14- or 15-hour days are every day. You have to pay your dues. You have to hopefully not make too many mistakes.

Trib: What do you like about running your own business versus working for someone else?

McLaughlin: You're your own boss, you don't have to put up with, if you get a crappy boss a lot of times you've got to take it because you need the job.

Trib: What is the most difficult thing about making a career change?

McLaughlin: Dealing with a different set of people. If you're at a job, you know what you're dealing with, you get used to it, you get used to your coworkers. Good or bad, there is a group of people that you're used to. When you change a career, you get a whole new set. Feeling your way through is probably the most difficult.

Trib: So what advice do you have for people who are making a career change?

McLaughlin: I think the best thing you can do is take on a project or make it your own. Even if you're sweeping the floor, do it the best that you can so at the end of the day you can say, hey, I swept this floor the best that I possibly could. Nobody could ever do it any better than me. That might sound a little bit weird, but it doesn't matter if you're sweeping the floor or making million dollar deals, if you gave it your best shot that's what you're going to remember. Not the money … . If you give it your best shot, the money will come. Business owners, they crave people who just get it done.

Trib: Do you think that you're going to retire from this job?

McLaughlin: I hope so. I'm going to do everything I can to make it my last career stop.

Chris Fleisher is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at 412-320-7854 or cfleisher@tribweb.com.

---

Copyright ©2025— Trib Total Media, LLC (TribLIVE.com)

---