Monica Pearce’s 10th Ward Distilling Wards Off the Ordinary

“Yeah, it’s kind of weird,” Monica Pearce admitted. She was talking about how she went from a career in science to owning a distillery in Frederick, Maryland.

You see, “Ward off ordinary” isn’t just a tagline for the former scientist’s Tenth Ward Distilling Company. It represents everything she wanted when she launched her brand.

Monica left years of experience in her chosen profession behind to do something different – something unexpected. In the midst of the brewing boom, she invested all of her time, money and effort into opening a distillery in Frederick, Maryland.

From there, Monica set out to craft unique and distinct spirits, building a team of talented and diverse professionals to support her goals. Looking back, it definitely paid off!

An Unexpected Start

Long before Tenth Ward came into existence, Monica pursued a life as an environmental scientist. “I've had the whole other career where I was traveling and doing science stuff,” she commented.

Ultimately, she worked with nonprofits to help promote scientifically backed social messages.

“The nonprofit that I worked for specialized in something called social marketing,” Monica explained. “Which is marketing for a cause so the ‘Smokey the Bear’ campaigns, recycling, whatever endangered species we were working with at the time.”

As she dug into that life, Monica discovered a love for something else too. “I've always been a big whiskey drinker,” she admitted.

The spirits industry drew her in. She’d previously worked in the hospitality industry as both a server and a bartender so she’d already worked adjacent to the industry.

Eventually, she began considering her options. The brewing boom was just taking off but she wanted to go in a different direction.

“I was formulating the idea,” Monica recalled. “And then I wanted to do something different than beer. Not a ton of distilleries had popped up in Frederick or in Maryland.”

That’s when Monica decided to open Tenth Ward in the Maryland town where she had lived for most of her life.

A Surprisingly Easy Transition

Running a distillery was a new experience for Monica but some of her previous experience crossed over and helped her get started.

“There are synergies and other expertise that I weirdly learned in that role that you wouldn't think would have crossed over,” Monica noted.

As expected, Monica had skills in data tracking and collection that easily translated into running a business. But, thanks to her specific role in social marketing, she gained a few other skills that also helped get the distillery up and running.

“We had to understand social science – how human behavior works,” Monica said. “How people respond to advertising and also just basic marketing principles. So that the scientific data we were collecting was matching up to the social work we were doing. I got a pretty in-depth crash course in marketing and social media as well branding.”

On the other hand, Monica had to develop new skills that she didn’t have. “I had less experience managing people,” she revealed. It also took a bit for Monica to adjust from marketing for a cause to selling a product. And running a business also required her to understand a variety of other skills too.

“I'm a first time business owner,” Monica explained. “So [I was] learning anything you need to on tax reporting, compliance, label development, [and] hiring people as we needed.”

In 2016, Monica opened a small tasting room in Frederick, Maryland. At the time, the state barred distilleries from offering anything more than a two-ounce sample to visitors. The operation that she hoped to run – one that could welcome visitors with cocktails and events – would require a bit of work.

Monica was ready for the challenge. “We were lobbying with the hopes for the law to eventually change,” she remembered. “You have to do a lot of elbow rubbing and public speaking and stuff like that. But I've always seen the opportunity of what we can do to help our business or what we need to do to prevent things that might hinder our business.”

The time and effort Monica put into it paid off and the state granted distilleries the ability to do more. Having been prepared for the opportunity, she opened a cocktail bar and private event space in 2018 and continually expanded, moving to a new space in 2020 just before the pandemic slowed everything down again.

Having navigated a number of changing laws already, Monica found ways to pivot once again.

“We kind of transitioned along with the laws as we launched the business,” Monica said. “And positioned ourselves as those things changed and grew different revenue streams and arms of the business.”

The Not-So-Shocking Obstacles

Along the way, Monica faced the typical challenges of running a business in the spirits industry. She acknowledged that being a cash flow business comes with particular obstacles and how aging barrels of spirits can sometimes be a tricky investment but she’s navigated her way through. Even managing compliance – even when compliance officers were once quite strict.

“[Alcohol compliance officers] were known for eight to ten years ago being very intimidating trying to come in to catch you doing something wrong when we're out,” Monica recalled. “They're no longer out to shut us down if we forgot to dot an ‘i’ on an application.”

Monica attributes the change in how the state agencies support her business to a strong economic development department in the city as well as a realization that businesses like hers are creating jobs and supporting the community.

And creating jobs – that’s something that Monica’s distillery has certainly done for Frederick, Maryland. She’s hired a full staff, including two women distillers – including Kachentha Bennett, one of very few Black female distillers.

“It's kind of a badass thing to be a female distiller,” Monica observed. “Even since we opened, people would be like, ‘that's cool you’re woman-owned.’ I didn't really harp on that or use it in my marketing for a little while until I realized that people were making their purchasing decisions or just choosing to visit us … because we were the woman-owned Distillery. That's something that I've seen happen over time, which has been cool.”

When Tenth Ward first came to be, the industry wasn’t quite so welcoming to women. Monica struggled with what she described as “Old Frederick Boys Club.”

“Any time I needed to get construction permits pulled, I wasn't recognized for knowing what I was doing,” Monica remembered. “As a woman, the contractors would even show up at my space early and make decisions without me and I would come in and find out later.”

Normalizing the Uncommon

Those early days, Monica navigated around all of these obstacles to launch the Tenth Ward brand and build a business she’s proud of. But the industry is changing. And Monica, a job creator, is helping contribute to that.

“I very much find it important to encourage job opportunities and learning amongst anybody who's different from what you expected somebody in the whiskey industry to be,” Monica shared. “Female, minority, LGBTQ – because they might not have known those opportunities existed and might not have been given to them.”

Education within and without the industry would also help broaden the industry, as far as Monica is concerned. And she sees a lot of organizations, such as the American Distilling Institute, supporting efforts like that.

The spirits industry is continuing to open up and welcome more diversity. It’s allowed Monica to find success and even lobby for changes across the industry that benefit her and the entire local distilling community as well.

Last year, Monica worked to get Maryland Rye, a beverage she and other distillers in the state are producing, to get designated as the official state spirit. “We're hoping to rival the Kentucky bourbon next,” she confessed. That’d be something very unexpected for an up-and-coming woman-run distillery.