Back in 1995, Todd Hummel was working PR for a global equestrian event in Mexico and travelling with the Canadian equestrian team. At a client dinner, tequila arrived. His client leaned in: “We don’t drink tequila like you [Canadians] do. We sip it.”
First sip: “Oh my God, this is not tequila.”
Her: “Actually, this is tequila.”
A lesson that took decades to matter
Fast forward 27 years. Hummel had booked a flight to Guadalajara with his business partner for a one-hour meeting with Ileana Partida, the fourth-generation master tequila distiller who had squeezed him into her tight calendar. Nine and a half hours later, they were still talking.
Partida had heard plenty of pitches from Americans wanting to launch tequila brands. Most treated her like a vendor. “You’re not a Machado,” she told him later, referencing an egotistical guy trying to extract expertise while keeping control. By day’s end in May 2022, they’d designed Elevación1250’s Blanco profile together. Hummel wrote three words in his notebook: Legacy, Heritage, Determination.
But this is not a story about pouncing on a marketing opportunity. It’s a story about how someone’s entire understanding of a spirit was wrong, and someone corrected him with respect, not judgment, leading to a different approach when that opportunity presented itself.
The long way around
Getting there took eight years. In 2014, Hummel was overseeing Ford’s Canadian advertising when Americans installed someone above him. He got pushed out at 47. Recruitment, consulting, business development. Nothing stuck until a pandemic-era connection led him to Partida.
At 52, after 30 years in advertising and marketing, he was finally building something on his terms, a product he loved dating back to his travels in Mexico.
The Rosa tequila from Elevacion1250 aged in California Cabernet barrels, then re-barreled for a year, targeting premium buyers others ignore. But the real differentiation is strategy.
While competitors chase big retail placement, Hummel built an ambassadorship program focused on female bartenders across North America. Bartenders are the most influential voices for new spirits. His partnership with Partida gives him credibility with the bartenders no ad budget could buy.
Hummel got credentialed as a tequilero ambassador through Mexico’s regulating body, the CRT (Consejo Regulador del Tequila), to understand and educate consumers about the families, the regions and heritage behind the spirit.
“I didn’t want people thinking I’m just some white dude from Toronto trying to benefit off the backs of those who’ve worked so hard to make tequila what it is,” he says.
Todd gives credit to his wife Jenn for supporting his dream and standing beside him through reinvention.
The calculated risk and reward
Todd credits his wife and immediate family for the support and encouragement he needed to take the risk.
There was never any false pretense about the challenges involved but the support of a few close people gave him the confidence he needed to forge ahead.
Since then , the connections he’s built could land him consulting work tomorrow. But that’s not the point. “Risking it all can be dangerous,” he says, “but if you’re going to risk it all, at least have a plan.” He knows the numbers. He’s made the trade-offs consciously. This isn’t reckless; it’s calculated risk backed by 30 years of marketing expertise.
Friends from the squash club drifted away. They were planning family vacations and off skiing every weekend, not building distribution plans. Hummel found his people in the industry instead, folks who understood what he was building. The solitude stopped feeling like failure and started feeling like part of the process.
Redefining retirement
What keeps him moving is refusing to follow the path his father took in retirement. He says he’s very proud of what his dad accomplished in his career and believes he inherited much of his father’s drive and character. He just wanted more for him in retirement and more for himself.
“Dad retired at 55 – the age I am now – and had a heart attack nine years later. People are living longer,’ Hummel points out. “If I’m going to live to 95, God willing, I don’t want to retire at 55 and sit around. Age shouldn’t preclude someone from pivoting.”
The question isn’t whether to coast or build. It’s what to build that matters for the next two decades.
Hummel is pushing retirement off and using this time to build legacy.
Building a legacy, not an exit
If a larger company acquires Elevación at some point, Hummel wants to stay involved. This isn’t about cashing out. It’s about building something that honors families like Partida’s while creating his own legacy.
The lie he stopped believing: That being impressive equals being respected. “People are going to like me for who I am, not for being fake or braggadocious,” he says. “It’s about being raw and vulnerable in my later years.”
His vision extends beyond business metrics. “I don’t want my legacy to be just some guy who started a tequila brand and sold it for $100 million. I want it to be about raising awareness of the families behind the spirit, showing my kids that work ethic and determination matter, and demonstrating that Mexico’s more than the headlines about crime and drugs. There are families doing something they’ve been doing for hundreds of years, and we enjoy it without much thought given to that.”
At 55, Hummel’s building a premium tequila brand run by a Canadian guy and a Mexican master distiller that honors heritage while refusing to follow the industry playbook. The ambassadorship program is working. A capital raise is progressing.
He’s applying 30 years of marketing lessons, but he’s not following advertising agency rules anymore. He’s proving you can build something meaningful at 55 if you’re willing to do the work, make the trade-offs, and find the right partners.
And he’s betting he’s got another 20 good years to see where this goes.
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