This Is Not Your Hobby

Shelf space is brutal. Your branding has to work overtime. In Episode 8 of This Is Not Your Hobby, Julie shifts the differentiation lens to wholesale. You don’t get a taproom vibe to tell your story anymore— you get three seconds in a walk-in cooler.

This episode breaks down how to stand out in the minds of retail buyers and customers alike. Julie unpacks why “great beer” isn’t a brand, why your sell sheet isn’t a resume, and how to use visual storytelling and value-adds to make your product undeniable on the shelf.

What you’ll learn in this episode:

• The difference between a product and a brand in wholesale
• How to craft your unique selling propositions (USPs) for distribution buyers
• What retail buyers actually care about (hint: not your origin story alone)
• What makes packaging and sell sheets work, or flop
• A checklist of value-adds that can tip the sale in your favor

Best For:

Any craft beverage producer— beer, cider, spirits, THC, kombucha, NA— who’s actively selling or preparing to sell into on or off-premise distribution.

Mentioned in this episode:

Kick Fizz (Julie’s brand) // @kickbeverages

Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action by Simon Sinek

Building a StoryBrand: Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen by Donald Miller

⁠Submit Your Bottlenecks⁠

Watch for Episode 9 with a surprise branding expert guest!

Differentiation isn’t a nice-to-have anymore. It’s survival. In Episode 7 of This Is Not Your Hobby, Julie tackles one of the most common bottlenecks in craft beverage: brands that blend in. You say you’re local, high quality, community-focused, and approachable— guess what? So does everyone else.

This episode is your taproom reality check. If your physical space doesn’t feel meaningfully different, your customers won’t remember it—and they definitely won’t tell their friends about it. Julie walks you through how to audit your space, define your vibe, craft three strong USPs, and communicate them everywhere.

This is Part 1 of a 2-part series on brand differentiation.

What you’ll learn in this episode:

• Why “craft,” “local,” and “friendly” are not real differentiators
• How to audit your taproom experience like a customer (not an owner)
• What a real unique selling proposition (USP) looks like for a taproom— using a craft beer example
• Where to communicate your USPs so customers remember you
• How to align your physical space with your brand identity

Best For:

Owners and operators of tasting rooms, taprooms, and brick-and-mortar beverage spaces who are struggling to define their unique identity in a saturated market.

Mentioned in this episode:

Free Brand Archetype Quiz

Kick Fizz (Julie’s Low-Dose Hemp Beverage Brand) // @kickbeverages

Submit Your Bottlenecks

This is Julie's second interview episode, and it's a must-listen for any beverage alcohol brand working with wholesalers. Her guest is Michelle Forster, Director of Sales at Black Tooth Brewing. As per usual in This Is Not Your Hobby, guests glean insight in this episode on how to do more with less— in this case widen your sales reach and boost profit, without expanding your sales team.

What you’ll learn in this episode:

• Soft skills vs. hard skills and why you need both on your sales team
• The value of sales training for your team
• Best practices for communicating with your largest customer: your wholesale partner(s)
• Tools & tech for streamlined communication with wholesale partners

Best For:

Owners and operators of beer, cider, seltzer, kombucha, spirits, THC, and non-alc brands with distribution partners.

Submit Your Bottlnecks

Your website is not a brochure. It is not a digital placeholder. It is not a project to annoy you. It is a 24-7 salesperson for your brand, and it is one of your best tools to generate revenue for your business. If you're neglecting it, you're literally leaving money on the table. In episode 5 of THis Is Not Your Hobby, Julie personifies your business website and convincingly explains why we shouldn't ignore it.

What you’ll learn in this episode:

• Shift your mindset to view your website as a salesperson, customer service rep, marketing team, and even a cash register
• A six-point checklist for a website that actually works
• SEO building blocks

Best For:

Owners and operators of beer, cider, seltzer, kombucha, spirits, THC, and non-alc brands who want to use their website to drive (more) revenue.

Mentioned in this episode:

Emotional Targeting: Win hearts. Boost sales. Own the market. by Talia Wolf

Submit Your Bottlenecks

Sales down? That’s not your wholesaler’s problem.

Julie tackles this episode’s bottlenecks with two specific scenarios in mind: an owner-driven sales approach scrappy— but not in a good way— and, having a sales representative but not a sales plan. Both lack strategy, and you can’t sell anything without strategy.

Tune in for a dose of Julie’s tough love and sound advice on training your sales team, a non negotiable. Instead of sitting around and commiserating about the beverage alcohol category down, let’s get to work on sales training!

What you’ll learn in this episode:

• Julie's 20 hour a week rule of thumb
• The value of engagement with accounts that fosters relationships and promotes reordering
• Tactics for identifying and building relationships with key accounts
• A checklist of quick wins for your sales department

Best For:

Owners and operators of beer, cider, seltzer, kombucha, spirits, THC, and non-alc brands who want to drive revenue... so, every one of them.

Submit Your Bottlenecks

Beverage marketers increasingly need to do more with less. Not to mention every department in the company relies on the materials they create. In this first interview episode of This Is Not Your Hobby, Reuben’s Brews Marketing Director Hunter Oetinger schools Julie’s listeners with digestible, easy to implement marketing strategies for small teams to make bigger impacts. 

What you’ll learn in this episode:

• Tools and SOPs for automation and streamlined communication within your marketing team, with your external vendors, and across the entire company
• Suggestions for gauging and maximizing marketing ROI
• Advice for ballin’ digital marketing on a budget 
• Reminders about the power of outsourcing 

Best for:

Owners and operators of beer, cider, seltzer, kombucha, spirits, THC, and non-alc brands who want to optimize the capacity of their small team without burnout.

Submit Your Bottlenecks

If you’ve been ghosting your email list (or haven’t even started one), it’s time for a wake-up call.

Welcome back to This Is Not Your Hobby, the podcast for beverage business owners who are done guessing and ready to grow. In this second episode, host Julie Rhodes gets into another massively underutilized— but wildly effective— sales tool: email marketing.

Julie breaks down how to use her 3 R’s of Great Email Marketing—Relevance, Rhythm, and Relationship—to build an email strategy that actually sells… without annoying your audience or spamming their inboxes.

Whether you’re starting from scratch or trying to level up your current newsletter game, this episode delivers a smart, actionable framework to help you grow your list, create better content, and build brand trust through email.

💡 Spoiler alert: Email still has the highest ROI of any marketing channel. Yes, really.

Let’s stop winging it. Let’s get to work.

What you’ll learn in this episode:

• Why email marketing isn’t dead—it’s just been misused
• The 3 R’s of Great Email Marketing: Relevance, Rhythm, and Relationship
• How to start building and maintaining your recipient list (no shady tactics)
• Ways to use email as a sales tool, not just a megaphone

Best for:

Owners and operators of beer, cider, seltzer, kombucha, spirits, THC, and non-alc brands who want to grow a loyal audience and drive real sales through email—without sounding like a robot.

Submit Your Bottlenecks

If you're a small beverage brand stuck in a love-hate cycle with social media, you’re not alone, and you’re in the right place.

Welcome to the first episode of This Is Not Your Hobby, the podcast for beverage business owners who are done guessing and ready to grow. In this kickoff episode, host Julie Rhodes tackles one of the most common marketing bottlenecks: building a social media content strategy that actually works.

She breaks down why the algorithm isn’t your enemy (even if it feels that way), and how her 3C Rule—Clarity, Consistency, and Connection—can help you create engaging, ongoing content without the burnout.

Let’s stop winging it. Let’s get to work.

What you’ll learn in this episode:

• Why social media feels overwhelming—and how to make it manageable

• The 3C Rule for creating a content strategy that drives results

• How to build connection without chasing trends

• Why social media is a business tool, not a personal diary

Best for:

Owners and operators of beer, cider, seltzer, kombucha, spirits, THC, and non-alc brands who want to stop spinning their wheels on social media and start getting traction.

Submit Your Bottlenecks