Employee Number One: How Lauren Builds the Tennessee Hills Experience
February 26 2026 – Jessica Callahan
Episode 4 of The Responsibly Rowdy Podcast is live.
And if you've ever wondered who actually keeps this whole operation from flying off the rails — this is the episode that answers that question.
If Episode 1 was the origin story, Episode 2 the science, and Episode 3 the culture, Episode 4 is the backbone. The person who showed up before there was a playbook (or a bar, for that matter!)...and never left.
Lauren Maddux is Tennessee Hills' General Manager and the person we call Employee Number One. She started bottling whiskey at 18. Eight years later, she runs events across three locations, manages inventory and merch, coordinates the calendar that keeps this company moving, and handles everything Stephen and Jessica don't want to deal with (her words, not ours).
Stephen sits down with Lauren to talk about how she got here, the event that almost broke her, and why 2026 is shaping up to be the biggest year Tennessee Hills has ever had.
Let's get into it.
From the Mall to the Bottling Line
Lauren was freshly 18, just starting college, and looking for a way out of her retail job. Stephen reached out through a mutual connection and asked if she wanted to help with bottling.
She said yes before he finished the sentence.
There was no bar. No event calendar. No gift shop. Tennessee Hills was a tasting room and a production floor, and Lauren became Jessica Callahan's shadow–learning every piece of the operation by proximity, repetition, and sheer stubbornness.
Over eight years, her role evolved the same way the company did: without a script. As Tennessee Hills grew, positions opened up that didn't exist before. Lauren filled them. Merch and inventory. Then event coordination. Then general management.
The bottle washer ended up in the C-suite. That's not a metaphor. That's literally what happened.
Wrangling the Chaos
Ask Lauren what she does now and the answer is deceptively simple: she handles the calendar.
That means booking music acts, food trucks, car shows, and private events across Bristol, Johnson City, and Jonesborough. It means making sure the gift shop is stocked, the merch is ordered, and the fifty things that could go sideways on any given weekend don't. And when they do (because they always do) she deals with it.
Stephen calls her the wrangler of chaos. It fits.
What makes Tennessee Hills different from any other venue is the promise that no two events feel the same. If you want it, we'll make it happen. And Lauren is the person who actually makes it happen. She's the one in the room with the event coordinators, the rental clients, and the bands. She's dialing in every detail so the experience feels custom, not templated.
The Christmas Market That Almost Wasn't
Every operation has a moment that tests whether the team can hold. For Tennessee Hills, it was the Christmas Market.
It was the biggest event the company had ever attempted. And Stephen and Jessica were in Iceland the week before.
Lauren, along with the rest of the team, had to pull it off without the founders on-site.
The night after vendors set up, a brutal storm rolled through and destroyed everything. Tents were gone. One ended up two miles down the road. Vendor displays were scattered across the property.
The team showed up the next morning to wreckage. Lauren wanted to cry. But she didn't. She got to work.
The event opened. Food ran out. There was a fist fight over tables upstairs. The crowd kept growing. And somehow, through teamwork, triage, and the kind of grit that doesn't show up on a résumé, they pulled it off. Three thousand people came through in three days. Nobody on the outside noticed a single flaw.
That's the thing about Tennessee Hills. The team is working tirelessly behind the curtain. The guests walk in and think it's magic.
Now they're prepared for next year. And Lauren's leading the charge.
2026: A Packed Calendar
The events pipeline for this year is stacked.
Shadow of the Moon, the Grateful Dead tribute band that packed The Hill last year, returns April 18th for the first major outdoor show of the season. The outside bar opens for the concert, then goes full-time in May through the end of summer. Specialty cocktails. Gold Spectrum THC Seltzer specials timed near 4/20. Grilled cheese in the parking lot. You don't want to miss it.
From there, the calendar fills fast. The annual Jeep show that drew 150 vehicles last year. The Porsche event supporting a great cause. A new monthly car cruise-in coordinated by Lauren and Cameron. Big bands every other Saturday through July.
And that's just Bristol.
The Dream Team Hits the Road
When Tennessee Hills travels, it's Stephen, Lauren, Jessica, and Cam. They call themselves the dream team. They show up to sell out and show out. And they usually come back with all their teeth (but perhaps missing an ear).
This spring, the travel team heads to Memphis for Roar & Pour, and Nashville for Whiskey & Wags on March 28th. They'll be pouring the just-launched Goo Goo Cluster Cream Liqueur and debuting the Tennessee 250 Whiskey — a wheated Tennessee whiskey made years ago in Jonesborough, now being bottled to commemorate America's 250th.
The Helix Society Goes Live
The episode also marks the first public conversation about the Helix Society, Tennessee Hills' new membership program.
The name isn't accidental. The Helix (as in DNA) Society commemorates the idea that the members are part of Tennessee Hills' molecular structure. Not just customers. Part of the ecosystem.
Past members get an exclusive introduction event this Friday, February 26.
New members circle May 9th, the day of the exclusive membership launch party.
The program includes special bottle releases, barrel picks, members-only tastings, and events designed to bring the Tennessee Hills community closer to the process.
Stephen's been wanting to launch this for years but held off until the infrastructure and team were in place to do it right. That moment is now.
Why You Should Listen
Because Lauren is what happens when someone shows up at 18 with no plan and refuses to leave until the thing works.
She didn't climb a corporate ladder. There was no ladder. She helped build the building the ladder goes in. Eight years of evolving with a company that didn't come with a playbook, learning every role by doing it, and becoming the person the founders lean on when the stakes are highest.
This episode is for anyone who's ever taken a job just to pay their bills and found something worth building instead. As Lauren puts it: the job you get in college to pay your party bills might just become your career.
New episodes coming soon.
