It’s Not About The Beer

[A collection of thoughts & relating of conversations, in no particular order.]

Here’s a conversation I have not-infrequently:

Other person: Is beer your passion?
Me: Indirectly. I like beer, but I’m passionate about people, and people, it seems, are passionate about beer so, by extension, I care quite a bit about beer. But in the context of people.

Sometimes the conversation takes a twist: “So you’re not passionate about beer?!” or some variation that leads to me either trying to change the subject or just acquiescing that I am, indeed, passionate about beer (the details of the indirectness aren’t important, and it makes them happy, and I’m all about People, so… 🙃 )

(NOTE: I’m also a stickler for “doing things The Right Way” and that carries over into my beer-making, but it’s a personality trait not specific to beer. I’m probably more nit-picky about sanitation than exact measurements, though I suppose this benefits beer making.)

But this all relates to another thing that’s not terribly uncommon, and that’s that many people get stuck on the idea that ours is “a beer place”.

Of course we make beer and offer beer for sale. Beer pays our rent and keeps the lights on. No argument there.

However, our entire focus — the #1 reason for creating ManyFriends — is to make a safe, playful, nice space for people — all people — where they feel welcome and can share stories and enjoy each other. (“Enjoy Each Other!” is one of our mantras.) Sometimes, folks buy beer — and that’s great! — but that’s not what we’re about. We’re about the People.

Big ACK*: I’m very aware of how lucky I am to have the privilege of being at a point in life where I can afford to not worry about maximizing profit and this allows me the luxury of having a rather unusual business model — the “don’t worry about it; somebody will buy beer today; let’s just focus on enjoying each other” thing. To all the ManyFriends who helped me get here and create this space, I am eternally grateful! And I also understand that many are not familiar with this type of business and so it’s understandable that they might initially view it as a “bar” looking to maximize high-markup alcohol sales. But that’s not what we’re doing, here.

* “ACK” is an abbreviation adopted from radio/electronics meaning “acknowledged”; colloquially, “I get it!”

(Heh. I took a break from writing this post to help a first-time customer. They were complimenting me on the beer and the very nice space and, as it was fresh in my mind (writing this), I explained a bit about how, while I’m glad they enjoyed the beer, I’m really focused on making a nice space for people. They were all “ooo, that’s a good angle — I bet that drives a lot of sales”. <sigh!> Maybe it does, but I had to bite my tongue and not go into A Big Thing about misplaced focus. Anyway…)

(As long as we’re taking asides…) I’ve never been a very good businessman. As above, I am grateful beyond words that I am having the opportunity to do this and that decent beer pretty-much sells itself without any real effort on my part. I’ve written before about the “focus on the customer experience and the rest will follow” school of business-models and I’m just thrilled beyond anything to have a chance to see it working in an environment that’s very difficult to fail. Another thing that comes up from time to time is suggestions of ways I can “double [my] sales” and I always say “I’m not really interested in doubling sales; do you have ideas for attracting more interesting, fun people to enhance our vibe?” The suggester invariably thinks they’ve caught on to my “marketing genius” and say something along the lines of “ooo, clever — more people will drink more beer!” I try to remain friendly and not become defensive or argumentative, but I wish I were better at communicating our mission. I think (hope!) it’s just a matter of “stay on target” and folks will eventually sort it out. Or not, and I guess that’s ok, too. So long as folks are enjoying each other, I suppose it doesn’t matter if they think of this as their favorite “beer place”; that’s just my hang-up. But it is, in fact, my hangup, so here’s my blog post about it. 🙂

I sometimes tell people “we don’t sell beer”. As you might expect, they balk at this; “of course you sell beer — I just bought a beer from you!” Yes, well; about that… We have created a safe, fun, nice space for people to gather and enjoy each other; sometimes they buy beer [and I serve it to them]. But I’m not a salesman, and you’ll never hear me say something like “would you like another beer?” (and certainly not “you should have another beer”!), which I consider acts of selling. Exception: I sometimes joke with folks as they enter — Me: “Welcome! How are you ?” Them: “Hot! Tired! Thirsty!” Me: “You’re in luck; we have cold, refreshing beer!” I don’t think of this as “selling” (they’re clearly already sold!), but just playful banter. Point being: I figure, if someone wants [another] beer, they’ll let me know, but I don’t ever want anyone to feel pressured or “sold” into buying beer. In fact, I occasionally let folks know “you can just sit here and play games or read a book, if you like; there’s no obligation to buy anything” [sometimes left implied; sometimes spoken aloud:] “Somebody will buy beer, today!” 🙂 I don’t do this because of Responsible Beverage Service training or anything similar; it’s just part of the entire business model: it’s about The People.

Here’s a thing: I don’t really like to toot my own horn, but a lot of folks tell me that I make darned good beer. Ok, cool — thanks! Thing is, I don’t think I have any particular skill at it, other than I try to stay awake and pay attention — I but I think most brewers do that much — and I guess the fact that I don’t feel any particular need to “go wild” with my beers means that most of my offerings are old-school, solid standbys that have been loved for ages. Point being: I don’t feel like I’m particularly a “master brewer” other than the fact that I’m not trying to be any sort of extreme, hipster, weird, “cool” brewer — to me, it’s an “anybody can make good beer, if they just take the time and think about it” thing, and the hard part — the part where I have to focus 85% of my attention — is on making the space nice for others. Even that’s not really “hard”, it’s just a constant effort; the space is constantly attempting to erode to some sort of entropic chaos, and I just have to stay on top of it, whereas making beer is fairly straightforward in my mind — I spend a day cleaning & cooking then wait a few weeks before it’s ready to keg & serve; “ta-da”: beer!

Anyway, we have games, puzzles, toys, comfortable (if somewhat eclectic) furniture and a constant stream of playful, nice, friendly people frequently commenting about how great it is to meet strangers and strike up a conversation. And that’s pretty-much what it’s all about, from my perspective.

That said, I’m told by people who claim expertise in this area that the beer is pretty good, too. 🙃

#stayFriendly
#enjoyEachOther!