No Shortcuts To Long-Term Success
You probably don’t know this but I’ve been building the Kegs & Code brand since 2014. I do what I can with the time I have since technically Kegs & Code still a side-hustle (as of December 2017). Looking back, I’m amazed with the amount of time I have put into that brand creating the website, launching products, growing the number of stores that carry my products, growing the e-mail list, doing a little bit of social media, taking photos, making videos… This brand was built from dusk to dawn (literally). So many late nights and definitely many early mornings to get Kegs & Code to where it is today.
It hard to consider starting a second company/side-hustle from scratch, why not use the platform I have already built? Well…
long-term success doesn’t accept shortcuts, that’s why.
When I launched the Dusk to Dawn Podcast it was actually called Kegs & Code Podcast. I rationalized that “Of course, they are linked. Kegs & Code is my side-hustle and the Dusk to Dawn podcast is all about talking about side-hustles.” That didn’t feel right from the beginning but I forced this concept through. Instead of creating a whole new website for the podcast, I created a single page under Kegs & Code. But then I wanted to offer courses down the road, so I created a new Kegs & Code homepage that would have three options: products, podcast and courses.
I was in total denial that all of this was a bad idea. It was a shortcut to hard work.
As soon as I launched the first episode of the Dusk to Dawn podcast I realized that Kegs & Code was an actual brand. People associated Kegs & Code with beer, wine and design. To introduce a podcast about side-hustle and the early stages of pursuing a dream was like adding soy sauce to chicken parmesan. Soy sauce is fine but not with an Italian dish.
I spent the next 7 days creating a new website, logo, intro, e-mail list and many other things for the podcast. I’m still not super satisfied with the branding of the podcast, I (barely) put together a website so I could start adding the episode posts somewhere. There is definitely a lot I still have to do to get the Dusk to Dawn podcast to meet my vision requirements haha
BUT my mind can rest now knowing that I’m doing the right thing, not the easy thing.
Since now I’m showing different facets of what I want to create and do, it’s smart to start working on my personal brand as well. “Hey this is Lucas, the podcast host and creator of Kegs & Code.” To be an avatar for all the things I put out into the world. Again, I thought it made sense to have my personal brand attached to the podcast but after talking to a personal branding expert, she told me not to do that. She told me to create my personal brand separate from everything. New website, new social media accounts and so on. She went on to tell me that even if I don’t dedicate too much time to those things yet, it’s important to at least have them in place to act like a glue to everything I create and long-term things wouldn’t look so random. If I wanted to create an outdoor brand or product for instance, it could easily go under Lucas Alcalde.
TAKING ACTION: If you want/like to create stuff, start by creating your personal brand. I didn’t do that because I thought I wasn’t good enough, I didn’t feel confident to start lucasalcalde.com for instance so I created Kegs & Code as a standalone company. Nothing wrong with that but, being the creative person that I am, it was just a matter of time until I started to venture out and create new things that are not related to beer. Now I can easily sell Kegs & Code for example and still have the Kegs & Code name attached to my name vs selling that company and sort of losing my identity as an entrepreneur because nobody knew who Lucas Alcalde is.
You can listen to the audio version of this article here if you prefer :)
About the podcast
I started the Dusk to Dawn podcast to share the stories of people who are in the process of building their dreams. When I started Kegs & Code I felt alone. I felt alone because people around me didn’t understand my desire to become an entrepreneur. Every week I bring on a guest to talk about the behind the scenes of their journey to become an entrepreneur and live life by design.
Your journey matters and you are not alone.
