The tenor of an introduction post can go one of two ways: On one hand, we've got the AA meeting-style, "Hi, my name is Luke and I spend too much time staring at screens." On the other, a sappy personals profile: "I enjoy long walks on the beach with the puppy and I'm a Serial Entrepreneur". Given the nature of my "day job" and my home's proximity to the ocean, let's go with the latter.
Founding Baxter Brewing Company
This is likely fodder for a much more in-depth post in the future but, as a means of self-introduction, I'm the founder of Baxter Brewing Company, located in Lewiston, Maine (USA). I started to fall in love with craft beer right around my 21st birthday (honestly) and began brewing my own beer in my junior year dorm room at Clark University in Worcester, MA. It was all down hill, as they say, after that. After college graduation, I started authoring a beer blog (blogaboutbeer.com, in fact, which I sold for a 5 figure sum in 2010) in 2007, simply as a hobby and distraction from my first "real world" job (in print advertising sales). But through that blog, started to learn as much as I could about the bourgining American Craft Beer industry and knew more-or-less right away that it was the career for me.
Fast forward a couple years (again, I'll do less "fast forwarding" in the future in a more Baxter-focused-only post) and, after losing my Mother in January, 2009 to breast cancer at the age of 63, I went through one of those cliche "life's too short" moments and decided to quit my day job. A few nervous breakdowns later, and I had a business plan for what would eventually, after raising $1.3 Million to open, become Baxter Brewing.
We began selling beer in January, 2011 (2 years and 1 day after my Mom passed away) and finished our first year of business by selling 5,040 barrels of beer (156,240 gallons); breaking all previous year-one sales records in the U.S. craft beer industry. A accomplishment which earned us the "2011 New Brewery of the Year" designation from BevNet Magazine; several local and regional awards; earned me a spot on MaineBiz's "Next 20" list of 20 Mainers shaping the future of the state's economy (published in 2012); and got me a spot on Forbes' Magazine's famous "30 Under 30" list of most influential entrepreneurs under 30 years old, as the first person in the entire beer industry!
Today we are the third-largest brewery in Maine (and among the 15 largest in New England) and sell beer in the 8 states from Maine to New Jersey. We have nearly 40 employees and produce 12 different commercial beers. These days, I spend the majority of my Baxter time on the road in a "founder-focused" role, visiting our current and prospective accounts; shaking hands and kissing babies, as the saying goes. Plus networking throughout the Maine business community (for those who've never been, it's a pretty small, close-knit state!). And that brings us, appropriately, to the next hustle:
Co-founding Saga Enterprises, LLC
A little more than a year ago, a friend and I discovered somewhat randomly (through membership in a private Facebook group, actually) that we had both made a hobby of Retail Arbitrage selling on Amazon.com--for me, I'd wracked up quite a bit of credit card debt when I wasn't working full-time while I was writing the Baxter business plan, and Retail Arb. was my "get out of debt" plan--and decided, over a couple of pints, to join forces and grow our Amazon business into a true side hustle (one which we'd call Saga Enterprises, LLC).
Again, lots more subject matter here for future posts, so I won't go into great detail at the moment. But now, a little over a year later, we are on track to sell about $350-400,000 on Amazon.com this year. While we have a few Private Label products, we focus the majority of our selling efforts on Wholesale selling (buying and reselling existing, in-demand products from established companies). We have our own warehouse space in Portland, Maine and a couple of part-time employees who handle our warehousing and our side of the fulfillment process (before product gets to the Amazon warehouses). All as a moonlight side hustle to our "day jobs" (#GetShitDone, #AlwaysBeClosing, and all that...). We also will be launching, in December, a nationally-distributed makeup/beauty product. So, there's that.
Investing in Crypto Currencies (Because I Clearly Didn't Have Enough Going On...)
Since I obviously needed another hobby, about 6 weeks ago now, I discovered the world of BitCoin and Crypto Currency investing (after a friend told me, just a little too late, that he'd recently capitalized on the meteoric rise of ETH), and have spent every spare minute I've had learning, reading, watching, digesting and, of course, investing in crypto. And that's how I came across steemit, and I'm psyched to be here. Yes - my portfolio is in the green; yes - I'm hodl-ing to the moon; and yes, I'm definitely becoming a student of the game. That being said, I likely won't post as much about crypto - not because I don't think I've learned a lot of valuable lessons (some of which are definitely share-able), I have, but because there are already plenty of people far smarter than I am sharing their opinions and discoveries here. But who knows - if I can find an approach not already beaten to death, I'm all yours, crypto fans. We'll see. As a means of introduction, which this still is, just know I'm all-in!
What I Do In My "Spare Time"
Since everything above takes up the vast majority of my waking--and then some--hours, this is the shortest section of all. But I live in Portland, Maine (USA) with my wife of almost 6 years, our 4 year old son, a puppy (we've been told he's a "pocket beagle", but he may just be a fancy mutt), 2 cats and 3 fish. I played Ultimate in college, and today play Disc Golf (instead; easier on the knees) as often as I can sneak away. I'm a big fan of live music--we're very blessed with an incredibly vibrant music scene in this otherwise small city of ours--and baseball; primarily the Red Sox (though I really do consider myself a fan of the game itself). Plus I do still really enjoy craft beer (I'm jaded, sure, but not that jaded, yet. I do still love finding and drinking a great beer)!
But perhaps (nay, definitely - at least according to my son) the most fun hobby on the list is that I'm a former (high school) professional juggler. True story - 5 balls, rings, clubs, knives, torches; the works. I haven't progressed in years, but it's like riding a bike: I haven't regressed any (I don't think), either.
So There You Have It
I love writing and have been looking for quite sometime now for an outlet to write (and publish) again. I've got a good feeling that steemit will be that outlet - especially since it affords me the opportunity to write and wax philosophically on any topic I choose (blogaboutbeer.com was rather, well, limiting in potential subject matter). I'm still learning how the whole platform works--do me a favor? If you have a great article/resource on how the upvoting/following/payment/etc. system works, could you link to it in the comments, please?--but really look forward to being more engaged in the community and contributing, in both writing and commenting/community-building, whenever and however possible. I think hope know this is the first of lots more to come. Please say hi and introduce yourself in the comments below. To The Moon, as the kids say.
Cheers!