Vibe coding works, it's practical, and - despite the name - it's one of the sharpest levers to hit business operations in years. If you're running a cigar brand, retail shop, or distribution outfit, this might be exactly what you need to stop bleeding time, cash, and margin.

If premium cigars were a stock, you wouldn’t buy these dips. You’d limit risk, focus on the players showing discipline, not hope. Lean in on the ones who match receipts to claims, who balance price to actual demand. Cut out the story-spinners and bet on numbers.

Loyalty in business isn’t virtue. It’s control. Discover why the free market rewards duty, execution, and alignment, not blind devotion.

Why most cigar companies lose by following the crowd 9/16/25 | Jonathan Lipson | The Cigar Profit | Schedule An Exploratory Call Failure...

In an industry built on tradition, consumers can be forgiving. What they don’t forgive is when repetition dresses itself up as something new. That’s when the gimmicks creep in  -  humidors with a new varnish, “premiumized” old stock, another line extension  -  distractions in place of real progress.

Stop acting like nobody’s watching - because they are. The premium cigar industry doesn’t have an optics problem - it has an optics delusion.

You don’t need a contract in front of you to be in a negotiation. You’re already in one. Every email where someone dodges a deadline. Every meeting where the real decision maker “isn’t available.” Every client who asks for more without saying what they’re willing to give. Every time you hesitate before asking for what you want. That’s a negotiation.

There was a time when the word “luxury” meant something. A time when buying something came with pride, when ownership meant exclusivity and when brands understood the transaction didn’t end at the register - it began there. That time is gone.

You Love One. You Trash the Other. Same Factory. Now What?

This is your house!!! And the second you forget that - or let someone else set the tone - you lose the one thing no online discounter, social media “expert,” or self-important blowhard can ever buy: Authority.

Here’s the hard truth: If you’re not the one shaping the way your customer thinks about cigars, what makes you think they’ll keep buying them from you?

MUDA thrives where no one’s willing to say no.

In a fragmented supply chain - where state taxes distort MSRP and retailers live or die by bad inventory decisions - a poor branding move doesn’t just hurt a cigar maker’s image. It burdens the entire system.

It seems like brands forgot who their real customer is. It seems like we’ve replaced smart segmentation with blanket prestige.

The cigar is the constant. What surrounds it - that’s what changes. And if you’re not building for that change, you’re not building anything that’s going to last.

Here's the uncomfortable truth: not every cigar brand can or should hang its hat on the past.

Let’s be honest - this industry’s tone is heavy. Reverent. Formal. In some corners, borderline theatrical.

In an industry this small, legacy isn’t something you sell. It’s something you pass on — if you do it right.

Brands aren’t built in applause. They’re built in trust.

Passion is everywhere. Discipline is not.