As a proper, born-and-bred Chinese person, I wouldn’t feel comfortable starting this article without a formal, primary school-style introduction. So before I get onto working with the Mayor, here’s a little about me.
My name is Hayden Zou. I’m originally from Hengyang in Hunan Province, and I moved to Shenzhen back in 1992 to be part of what was – and still is – the most exciting city in the world.
During my time here, I’ve worked as a GM and COO for companies making metal, digital displays, and… snowboards. Needless to say, that last one was a relatively short endeavour, given the lack of demand for winter sporting equipment in a subtropical region where snow is about as common as standard Mandarin. working with the mayor
Eventually I got tired of the corporate life, so I decided to retire and open a hotel. The tourism industry had always interested me, so I bought a fix-me-up hotel, some power tools, rolled up my sleeves, and put together a team to help me renovate. I would have been content to live out the rest of my days in the comfort of my inn, but one fateful day, the phone rang.
How it all began
In 2019, I answered a call from Jeff Olyniec. Jeff was the former boss at one of the companies I used to work for. He had recently invested in another company I was working with, so I answered thinking he wanted to talk about his new investment.
“Hey Jeff, how are y—”
“Yeah, Hi, Hayden, listen. I’ve got a job for you. Stop whatever you’re doing, get in your car, and drive to the address I’m sending you now. Gotta go.” *click*
This was pretty typical Jeff. A briefing would have been nice, but sometimes a little mystery is enough to make you get in your car and just go. And that’s what I did, leaving behind my unfinished tea and half-eaten youtiao (that’s a fried dough stick for you non-Chinese).
I drove to the office of Jay Robertson, who was known in expat circles as the “Mayor of Liquor Town” – a reference to his sprawling empire of importing western booze into China . True to his namesake, his office had shelves with hundreds of bottles on display. Most of them were whisky, and I didn’t recognise a single one.
We sat at his desk, and he walked me through a slide show about building a distillery in Fujian. I smiled and patiently let him get through it.
You see, I knew a distillery would do well in China, and if Jeff was involved, I was willing to invest too. But Jay surprised me when he said he wasn’t asking for me to invest. He was asking me to work for him. I remember laughing and saying that I didn’t know anything about whisky, but he grinned back and said I’d learn on the job, starting Monday.
I went home, baffled and confused. I was retired! I was a hotelier now! I had no intention of going back into full-time employment… but somehow, the idea of working in an entirely new industry stuck with me. Jay has a “big” personality, to put it politely, and the ridiculousness of working with the self-proclaimed Mayor of Liquor Town also had an odd if not grim sort of appeal.
I’ll admit, I was more than a little intrigued about the project, so I wrote up a list of questions and decided to follow up.
Why seatbelts were invented
On Monday morning, I went back to Mr. Mayor’s office for a chat. Right as I arrived, he was on his way out. He ushered me back to the carpark, asked where my car was, then took my keys, told me to get in, and started to drive.
This was all in the span of about a minute. What the hell is wrong with all these foreign guys, I thought. He said we were going to Dongguan, about 90 minutes away, to meet a couple of other board members.
I used the drive to go through all my questions. I wanted assurance that this guy knew what he was doing. He answered every single question without any pause for thought, demonstrating that this distillery wasn’t some half-baked idea; he had an eerily encyclopaedic response for everything I threw at him. Some might think that that’s normal for a CEO, but a lot of CEOs I’ve met don’t tend to deal in the finer details. If Jay had any gaps, aside from those in his sanity, I couldn’t find them.
Between my questions, he was also juggling a few dozen conversations on WeChat using the voice message feature (safer while driving but still a bit nerve racking). I distinctly remember the audio messages he was sending. They ranged in topics from customs issues at a nearby port, an argument with an architect to correct another architect, two arguments with two different lawyers to correct some contract wording, lecturing someone on how to correct the chemical composition of a type of fertilizer, and something to do with software development that went completely over my head.
Not for the first time, I wondered what the hell I had gotten myself into.
Despite being borderline hostile when arguing with his colleagues about technical details, every single question I asked about the distillery seemed to flip a mental switch and bring out something different in him. The “asshole personality” was replaced with one that was much warmer, engaged, and – I hate to admit it – fascinating.
Those 90 minutes were more interesting than anything that happened to me in the previous few years combined. Hotel work isn’t all that exciting I suppose. I realized that either this guy was an absolute nutter and we were going to die in a car crash on the way to meeting these other board directors (who might not have even existed, for all I knew) or he was something of a mad genius.
Either way, I was intrigued.
(PS – We didn’t die on the way to Dongguan.)
Interview by Feng Shui
At the end of that day, Jay and I were sharing a top-shelf whisky together.
“So are you in?” he asked. I quickly learned that Jay wasn’t much for transitions. “I need someone to manage day-to-day operations. I want that person to be you.”
It occurred to me then that I had no idea how much he knew about me or why he was offering to me, just an Average Zou, an important job without so much as a formal interview. So I asked. Jay laughed and said I wouldn’t believe him, so I knew this was going to be a good story.
It went like this: Jeff and I had known each other for years. When Jay was in the market for a Managing Director, Jeff forwarded him my CV. As is standard practice in China, it included my birthday.
Jay being Jay, he’d given my date of birth to the distillery’s Feng Shui master (you can read about him here) and told him to read my fortune – or “Suan Ming” (算命). He used a traditional method known as “Zi Wei Dou Shu” (紫微斗數) or calculating destiny based on the positions of stellar objects relative to the North Star. It’s basically a metaphysical mashup of zodiac signs and astrology with a dash of Feng Shui.
Apparently – and I took this with a huge grain of salt, as I hope you do too as you read this – despite the fact that we were both stubborn and pedantic asshats who would fight like cats and dogs, we were predicted to have a perfect partnership and could achieve great things together.
Yeah, right. I was absolutely sure Jay was bullshitting me. I nodded, smiled and didn’t ruin our nice moment. But the moment I got back to my hotel room, I looked it up online, the source of all reliable information. I found this:
“属马和属蛇之人组为伙伴多可有互补之势，其二人一人多有莽撞，一人则多有沉稳，一人性格内敛，一人则多有张扬，分工之搭配得当，多可有成，属马和属蛇事业合作顺成。
属马之人其人多有善言辞，尚且可善应酬之事，为人之喜冒险，未有胆怯之心，尚且多有为人之坦诚，多可相处之无碍，然亦有急躁冒失之症，故多有犯错之时。
属蛇之人其人不喜言语，多有默默无闻于工作之时，尚且多可能力之佳，多可自行决断处事，不喜言辞之症多有疲于应酬之事，故与人交往之事尚有费心之时。属马之人和属蛇之人搭配恰到好处尚可事业无忧，长久之合作多可有合作之成果，少有波折”
[Editor’s note: I tried to convince Hayden not to include what some people might consider to be a load of hogwash. It’s cheesy, but he insisted, so… enjoy, I guess. I’m just the editor, what do I know?]
It more or less says the following about Jay (the snake) and I (the horse):
The horse and the snake have complimentary characteristics. If two people, one more reckless (guess who) and one much calmer (me) come together, the division of labor flows smoothly.
This next part might be a little harder for some people to accept.
The snake is usually introverted, hates public speaking and is fiercely independent when making decisions.
Many will say that only one of these accurately describes Jay. You can guess which one. But after years of working with the Mayor of Liquor Town, I have learned that there’s a kernel of truth in his horoscope here. Although he runs his mouth online like an angry streetside preacher, I know for a fact that he hates public speaking and likes to keep to himself outside the demands of his profession.
And this is why we make such a great team, because I’m good at what he hates.
Besides, a good friend once told me that I was smart as a horse and hung like Einstein, so perhaps there’s even greater truth to this horse-snake fortune telling after all.
[Editor’s note: I included this last bit out of revenge for making me translate all that obscure Chinese. You’re welcome Hayden.]
Longyan, written in the stars
Just a few weeks after accepting the role as GM for the distillery, I relocated to Longyan in Fujian Province, the future site of Nine Rivers Distillery.
Relationships with local stake holders are absolutely critical to the success of any serious project in China. Many people are familiar with the concept of guanxi or relationships, and it’s true that meeting professional contacts face to face, at any time, is absolutely necessary.
Many people wrongly think that things in China happen naturally fast. And that if you grease a few palms, things go even faster. This, quite simply isn’t true for any serious business.
While you might scoff at me saying that China is one of the strictest countries in the world concerning construction and safety, it’s true. Many Western countries have rules that govern the aesthetics and general “feel” of a building, but China’s rules are heavily biased towards the safety of staff and the general public. working with the mayor
This is doubly true for a distillery where fires and explosions are a distinct possibility. There have been several instances where we wanted a specific design, but fire regulations wouldn’t allow it or the Feng Shui master would veto it (also an important part of doing business in China), so all in all, we’ve been patient and creative, especially concerning the design of our roofs.
Fortunately, through concerted effort and nonstop meetings, PowerPoint presentations, and local engagement, we have been able to build lasting relationships with important stakeholders in Fujian, which has gone a long way towards accelerating the progress of our project. We were able to secure a perfect plot of land, better and more sprawling than any organization that isn’t a Fortune 500 company could ever hope to have.
It was a mammoth task, but we did it.
Working with the Mayor
As we continue to move forward with construction and interest in the project grows, the single question I get asked the most is: “What’s it like working with the Mayor of Liquor Town?”
A lot of people ask this because they only know Jay from his abrasive online persona hawking goods online. If you are in any of his whisky, liquor, food, or townie groups, you know how he is. How many of us have laughed at how he handles people that annoy him or disrespect his staff? He’s a legendary troll, the one who treats online communities like a playground, all for entertainment while giving out pretty good deals on food and drink.
I might ruin a few people’s perceptions of Jay here, but here it goes.
Very few people know Jay outside of these online personas. Having worked with him since 2019, interacting with him multiple times a day and working alongside him to bring our project to life, I’m probably the person with the most insight into his character. I can confidently say that I know him better than anyone else in China.
When I first met him, I could have sworn he had multiple personality disorder. But I’ve come to realise that it’s not so much a disorder as it is a superpower. Depending on who he’s talking to and the subject matter, he blends in like a chameleon and brings out the best in people. That’s why our project has been able to grow as a truly grassroots endeavour and why everyone who gets involved is more than eager to lend their talents and abilities. Working with the mayor.
In a way, he’s the glue that holds us together. Jay has always said that the Nine Rivers Distillery project will always be about the people involved and not about him. But the fact of the matter is, his vision and insane passion for the distillery are the reason we all got involved and invested in the first place. Anyone can invest money, but to inspire someone to invest money and talent? That’s exactly why our project will be successful.
I won’t pretend Jay is easy to work with. He’s really not. He’s the most difficult person I’ve ever worked with. But he also happens to be the most talented person I’ve ever worked with. Working with the mayor
He’s a taskmaster perfectionist. He’s impatient and has the bedside manner of a feral cat with rabies. Yet, beneath all that, when someone asks for advice or help, he will drop everything and give you his undivided attention.
It’s a bit of a roller-coaster at times, but that’s just Jay.
So what’s it like to work with the infamous Mayor of Liquor Town? It’s fast-paced. It’s fun. Its educating. In short there’s method to his madness and knowing that helps me get past his thousands of character flaws to see him for what he truly is: a leader with vision, a nerd with a broad range of passions, and a good man who I trust with the future of this project.
[Editor’s note: The official line is “hundreds” of character flaws, not thousands.] Working with the Mayor
Thanks to Phill
I’m going to close my story with a huge thanks to Phill, my fellow Nine Rivers investor, for helping me put this together. English isn’t my native language and while I can communicate decently in professional contexts, I didn’t want this article to sound like it came from a Business English textbook.
Phill surprised me with his Chinese skills; he understood much more than I expected and was able to expertly capture all the little nuances I hoped to convey.
[Editor’s note: Aw, thanks Hayden.]
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Working with the mayor
Working with the mayor