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Conversations with the Inspiring Julie Rhodes

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Julie Rhodes.

So, before we jump into specific questions about what you do, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I was born and raised in Dallas, TX, but have lived in multiple states throughout my life, finally settling here in Colorful Colorado just north of Denver. I’m a baseball nerd, lover of BBQ, sci-fi fan, and something most people don’t know about me is that I used to play competitive pool in the Billiard Congress of America and the American Pool Association. My husband and I are both in the beer industry, which is actually how we first met. We’ve got two amazingly vivacious boys, a few dogs, a cat and a box turtle. We have a passion for anything outdoors, and plan to retire to the mountains one day. I hate being hot, so I avoid beaches, and all my vacations of choice usually involve jackets of some sort.

My passion for the craft beer scene started in college, as I bartended my way to a BA in Marketing at Texas State University at San Marcos. Working in pubs and beer-centric bars afforded me a huge knowledge base about beer styles, breweries, beer pairings, and beer sales. Not wanting to take a “cubicle” job, I decided to try my hand at combining the two things I loved most – business and beer. I got my first brewery sales representative job in 2009 and never looked back. Over the past decade, I’ve sold beer in 12 states, represented 18 different breweries, managed as many as 11 distributors at once, and coordinated international digital marketing campaigns. Realizing over the years that there was a lack of proper sales and marketing resources and training at most craft breweries, I made it my mission to establish affordable and convenient educational opportunities for growing breweries. Six months ago, I established Not Your Hobby Marketing Solutions in my Broomfield home office. I provide sales and marketing training for craft beer professionals through my library of online courses and customized coaching programs. My goal is to help growing breweries increase their beer sales and optimize their brewery marketing to differentiate their brands in a crowded market.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Paying for my degree and starting a career in a traditionally male-dominated industry has not been easy, but it’s been an amazing experience, and I truly believe that my “lifetime resume” has qualified me for the work I do today. It took me 7 years to get my bachelor’s degree because I paid for the whole thing myself with no student loans, but it taught me how to persevere and manage my time efficiently. One particular struggle was getting a break into beer sales. The beer industry is all about who you know and what names you can drop, so don’t give up easily if you’re trying to break into the craft beer scene as a career. It took me nine months of sending out countless resumes just to get a call back for an interview when I first got started. There were hardly any women in the beer industry when I began my journey, but having amazing organizations around, like the Pink Boots Society, for educational opportunities and support has been invaluable. If I had to give advice to any young women in the beer space it would be to align yourself with a mentor if possible, join female-focused trade organizations and networking groups, and learn to use your voice. Don’t be afraid to speak up about inappropriate behavior, roadblocks in the workplace, and your true worth.

What should we know about Not Your Hobby Marketing Solutions? What do you do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
I live and breathe sales and marketing strategies, but it’s all specifically for the craft beer industry – we speak a pretty unique language, so there’s a lot of nuances in selling techniques and marketing tactics. My mission is to teach growing breweries how to gain a competitive advantage over their larger industry counterparts by working smarter, not harder or spending more money on traditional promotional tactics, like advertising. I specialize in training brewery field sales reps and sales managers, as well as teaching brewery personnel how to run their digital marketing campaigns on a tight budget. I also help breweries manage their distributor partner relationships. I’m proud that I followed my concept for this company at all, as I was sitting on the idea for years, but had to build up the bravery to get it going. There are not many beer sales trainers at all, honestly there’s only about 4 or 5 in the US, and as of today, I don’t think there are any organizations that are providing marketing skills training specifically for the beer industry. What sets my company apart from the few others is that I give all of my training programs a modern spin that integrates technology in selling and current digital marketing techniques.

It would be great to hear about any apps, books, podcasts or other resources that you’ve used and would recommend to others.
I consume a lot of content, so it’s hard to narrow down my list of recommended resources! I read a lot of books and always have two going at the same time – one personal and one business-related. Some of my favorite books include “The One Thing”, “The E-Myth”, “Traction”, “Dare to Lead”, “Daring Greatly”, “Better Than Before”, “The Big Leap”, “Building a Story Brand”, “FANtastic Marketing”, “FANtastic Selling”, and “Crushing It”. Podcasts I listen to on the regular include Brewbound, Good Beer Hunting, Building a Story Brand, Catalyst Sale, Mouthy-Messy-Mandatory, Social Media Marketing, Online Marketing Made Easy, Mind Your Business, and The Shameless Mom Academy. I love any blog posts from Marie Forleo, Gary Vaynerchuk, Bobby Klink, James Wedmore, Amy Porterfield, Good Beer Hunting, Beer Business Finance, CPG Datasheet, October, and Business2Community. My must-have apps include Evernote, Headspace, Trello, Cozi, Buffer, DayOne, Aaptiv, Kindle, Netflix and Marco Polo. I would advise that you make sure that in addition to gaining knowledge about business, you also need to make sure that you’re taking care of yourself. Don’t underestimate the power of personal development.

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Image Credit:
Raymo Estrello, Christie @Hello_You_Studios

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