Once a bartender, always a bartender

We've all been there: you're at a party. There's gin, dry vermouth, and olives out on the table. The only bartender—current or former—at the party is you.

Does anybody besides you every make the martinis?

Hell no.

There are a lot of challenges to working in the service industry (which we've covered in previous editions), but this is one we don't often think about: if you've spent meaningful time as a server or bartender, you never really turn off your server/bartender mind.

You look at everything through the lens of being a bartender or server—is somebody struggling to clear the table after Christmas dinner? You'll stack and clear the dishes. In a small group chatting? You catch yourself checking to see if anybody's glass is empty.

As both Marcus Aurelius and Shaun Mcguire (bartender extraordinaire and coach), say, a boxer is always a boxer because he’s always got his weapons—his fists.

We're like a boxer because we've always got our weapon too: our head-on-a-swivel attention to whether anyone needs anything.

In this week's interview Shaun talks about how important it is to create a distinction between You and You the Bartender, because if you don't proactively work at it, you're always going to be You the Bartender. And that's not going to get you in a good place in either your life or your relationships.

Check out the interview clip to hear more from Shaun:

👉 And if you'd like to hear more from Shaun about bartender life (including financial advice and some interesting stats about bartenders), check out this playlist on the Brave New Bar Youtube channel.

❓ Why?

Because prospective customers often check out your website to decide whether or not to come in.

They'll click the "see website" link on their maps app, they'll click the link in your social media bio, or maybe they'll just run a google search for "bars near me."

Regardless, they're getting to your website, and if all they see on your website drink menu is "we have specialty cocktails and craft beer," it's easy for those folks to say "uh, no thanks."

And to be clear: you should keep all your menus—including your rotating beer list—up-to-date on your website.

Even if just a couple people each month are drawn into your place because you're website menu hygiene is on-point, that's totally worth it.

❓ How to do it?

Manually is an option (though not a great one—see below). Here's how the manual flow could work for your team:

1. Create a menu page (or different menu pages for your different items) on your website. Most website builders offer an easy-to-use and professional-looking menu template that allows you to avoid using a PDF, meaning your menu will be mobile-friendly.
2. Add your menu content. Be sure to include all your menu items and descriptions.
3. Include an "Updated on" timestamp so that visitors can trust what's up there (sooo many places have out-of-date menus on their website).
4. Make sure everybody who needs it has access and the know-how to update the menu when items change.
5. Every time your menu changes, go to your website and make the updates. Don't forget to change the "Updated on" timestamp.

First, thanks to everybody who completed our survey over the last couple weeks. The answers were really helpful. And to the 7 gift card winners: enjoy the cash!

📊 Here's a summary of the data:

• 86% of respondents said they'd be interested in hearing more personal stories in the interview section (i.e. not limit that section to advice, as we've done pretty much since we started).
• Still, "advice" was the most popular content format for the interview section (outperforming panels, stories, and personal coming-of-age tales).
• The top-3 things folks wanted advice about were:
  • Increasing sales at off times
  • Marketing
  • How to get new ideas for your business
• 76% of respondents said they'd be willing to refer colleagues and friends if Brave New Bar had a referral program (you get rewards for referring people to subscribe).
• For referral rewards, personal swag (e.g. t-shirts) and experiences (tab at a local bar, etc.) outperformed materials for your business (e.g. coasters).

We're fresh out of gift cards for this survey round (we'll run another before the end of the year), but the survey is still open to anyone who wants to get their voice heard or would like to be interviewed for Brave New Bar.

• Shout-out to great CHI-area newsletter Guys Drinking Beer for catching what seems to be a massive increase in label submissions to the TTB prior to the impending government shutdown. Pretty cool (obv not really) that Biden and House Republicans agreed to a deal earlier this summer to prevent a shutdown but now the far-right whackos are going back on their deal. Par for the course with those knuckleheads.
• Here's a report on this year's Great American Beer Festival's (GABF) winners. It appears the fest—which is the most important beer fest in the US—was again a success. Good to know, since less-elite beer fests have been struggling.
• In a wild story, the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board closed all 48 of its Philadelphia locations on Tuesday night due to a wave of apparently indiscriminate looting throughout the city.