How I Got Here

I think the best way to start this off is candidly and as frank as possible—this blog is going to be real fucking raw. The point of the words that you will find here are going to help push you and your teams forward, your business to the next level, and help possibly add a little razzle-dazzle to your personal swagger along the way.

In short, welcome to Thunder Dome bitch!

In due time my plan is to turn a book around soon to add to the value you find on this page covering a two-year long journey where I and a handful of other absolute maniacs were able to flip the craft beer game a bit, shake the cages and rattle the traditional ways of doing things on a climb to unexpected and quite frankly, improbable success.

So, today’s short story is going to be a quick intro and bar napkin plan story for the ages, discussing quickly what happened and how we got to the level of Top 50 in the craft industry in what seemed like overnight. I will tell you, it felt like eons to those involved.

Before you ask, yes. I am a consultant who is paid to share my thoughts, guidance and in-field techniques to create amazing results that are proven. Will this provide some level of free insight? —why yes it will and that’s the fucking point.

My goal is to help others achieve as much as they deem and dream possible. I want to help you all understand that limits are set by us, understand that our shortsighted or overzealous goals make those limits, and help implement ways to overcome them. For you to utilize anything big or small I have to give along the way is the goal I have for myself here.

My services, when applied to your business are much more in depth, I assure you. It’ll get deeper than a long-fingered proctologist.

To that end, let’s get started.

I want you to take a minute to relish in the moment I met my future CEO, confidant and great friend. It’s a Tuesday night, local bar in the famous or infamous Dauphin Street in Mobile, Ala. I was a craft brand manager for the local Budweiser distribution house and moonlighted as a bouncer and barback for the cash. I had recently helped expand our portfolio a bit by bringing in additional supply brands and was soon to meet the CEO of one of those brands. More to that later, let’s talk about this bar.

Every night the sound of music floated outside the front door seemingly riding the smoke of the cigarettes lit inside and the smoke machines around the stage on weekends. It was one of the few smoking bars left—now smoking inside is banned—which added to the salty and “barroom” feel if you will.

On the busy weekends some of the greatest keys I had ever heard played would resonate, bands with brass would jam, or a raspy voice would be belting out Southern style rock not missing a note, key or change of pitch from what would be a record worthy recording nightly. The talent here was and is always top notch.

On the weekends no-one would bat an eye at the cover charge of $10 knowing that it was a standard fee and honestly a bit low for some of the talent that would roll through the doors. But the Tuesday crew was usually a one piece that was a weekender that was making a little extra cash, or a new talent that was hoping to draw a crowd and a bigger night in the future.

I was one of those acts reaching for more, but my act was trying to keep gaining favor with my friends which manage and own the place as I kept taking shifts to earn the cash and better weekend opportunities. It had worked over the year or so I had been there, and this Tuesday was no different. I was bartending beside a friend and able to have the ease of a Tuesday and the extra ducats that came with it.

Randomly my phone rings behind the bar about two hours into the shift and it is one of the suppliers that I had recently signed to a distribution contract. The local sales rep for the brand informed me that the CEO was in town and wanted to meet the distribution craft manager, if possible, when he was around. I said, “fuck yeah bro, bring it!” and they made there way down to the bar.

After a short introduction and talking a bit, you could tell there was some confusion as to why I was standing behind the bar as a craft manager for the distribution house. He eventually asked and I told him frankly I was working the extra gig because I had to, and that I was lucky enough to have extra cash.

Obviously perplexed we continued to carry on conversation and talk about the business overall, expectations for the brand and how I saw the future looking in the area for their liquid. Overall, great chat.

A few weeks later the CEO and other board members and executives with the company visited again. This time my crazy ass was off from a shift and that night we were able to take in the greatest tradition known to Mobilians as “socializing”. Others would call it power drinking. The general population of Mobile, Ala. Is in a constant state of celebration, after all it is the city that is “Born to Celebrate.” I love my hometown.

Over that night of pool, music and back deck discussions about everything from distribution partnerships, expansion planning, brand recognition and marketing for craft beer we shot back and forth as a group about the business, and ways to leverage understanding of the three-tiered system to create a “perfect” supplier for distribution and the market. It was as if we had all discussed this before and were wrapping up the final discussions of the business model, but it was our first. We truly cocktail napkinned this sucker together. A few weeks later I had an offer as the Director of Sales of the newly formed group looking to expand at a grease lightning rate. But did I have what it took to take them there like I said?

All of this to say I was ok with where I was in my life at the time. I was ready to keep living that day in and day out with no other changes and it would have sustained me. I had been safe all my life with certain decisions, uncontrollably bat-shit crazy with others. Professional choices outside of the Navy were not my typical venture out move. I wanted to have consistency and to play it safe. When I was asked to take the position my head said no, why would I? I was comfortable.

My heart said yes, and thankfully I listened to the latter. I took a leap, and my God did we hit the ground sprinting. Over two years we moved our operation from just the panhandle of Florida, quickly into the heart in Orlando and outliers. We spread to other states as well and in search of manufacturing capacity found some diamonds in the rough of classic breweries in the Carolina’s for sale. At the end of my time the brands were the Official Craft Beer of Florida State Athletics, Carolina PGA and hosting numerous other future endeavors.

The aggressive approach to expansion we showed at the executive level was mirrored by our conquer and conquest mode driving the sales team. The team was built from the ground up with a few inherited folks from the other programs, but it all started in Orlando with the current VP of Regional Sales and ended with a robust and talented team. We didn’t operate to receive a no, and neither should you. I built myself a plan, captured tenacity and woke up pissing vinegar daily to make something special. We succeeded.

If there is one thing you get from this page today, I hope that it is this: don’t be surprised when fate arrives at your door. When it does, grab the horns, ride the wave. There will be opportunity, there will be a chance for you to make your next move or shit, your first one. But don’t let yourself or your comfort keep you from recognizing a possible opportunity and embrace the suck you see for the glory you receive.

What pain points do you and your business face that you are afraid to address? Which ones are you ignoring because it’s comfortable and easy? Growth isn’t easy. Let’s start that journey together and reach the pinnacle where the fun truly begins.

First rule of sales—always secure a yes. Even if you simply ask to borrow a pen to write an unneeded note, the word yes is powerful. Get one, gain others.