Daniel Whittington spent 7 months crafting the perfect message and a mere 10 minutes on the the plan of attack. How did it turn out? Dave Young: Welcome to the Empire Builders Podcast, teaching business owners the not-so-secret techniques that took famous businesses from mom-and-pop to major brands. Stephen Semple is a marketing consultant, story collector and storyteller. I'm Stephen's sidekick and business partner, Dave Young. Before we get into today's episode, a word from our sponsor, which is, well, it's us, but we're highlighting ads we've written and produced for our clients. So here's one of those. [Seaside Plumbing Ad] Stephen Semple: Hey, everyone. So we have a special surprise today. We've given Dave Young the day off because Dave works really hard. Actually, Dave works for this guy, so we know why Dave works so hard. So I'm here with Daniel Whittington, and Daniel is the Chancellor of the Wizard Academy and basically created the Whiskey Marketing School at the academy. Last time I was down in Austin, Daniel and I were sitting in the vault. We are doing a tasting, and Daniel shared a thought that just like rocked me back on my heels, which doesn't happen that often. What I loved about it is he compared the marketing of whiskey to the promotion of a band. And the more he talked about it, I said we need to share this idea on the podcast because I'm constantly going down this idea of looking elsewhere. So Daniel, tell us more about this revelation and the journey you've been on. And at the end, let's make sure we talk about why everyone should actually take a course at the academy and learn about whiskey. Daniel Whittington: My explanation of it now sounds just as good as it felt like it did when we were drinking whiskey in the vault together because those two don't always line up. So thanks for having me on, Steve. The origin of this whole idea was I've got a background in music industry. I spent 20 years as a full-time studio and touring musician and, during that time, did a lot of booking, did a lot of traveling, did a lot of promotion of bands, actually worked with bands, promoting and touring and growing their fan base. Then I got out of that and stumbled backwards into Wizard Academy where I've spent the last years, 11 years, actually. Stephen Semple: Wow. Has it been 11 years? Daniel Whittington: Been 11 years. Stephen Semple: Holy smokes. Daniel Whittington: Basically getting a graduate-level super masters in actual marketing and communications and, during that time, started the Whiskey Marketing School and have now started working with my own clients that are whiskey-related right now. One of them, they are poised for explosion and growth. They're well set up. They've been winning awards. They've already got a huge fan base that's kind of localized to where they tend to travel to most, not just their town, but in their region. But we're ready to grow them. They've got some investment, they've got some money, they've hiring, they're ready to explode. So we spent seven months building the marketing strategy, the ethos, the brand voice, the architecture of the personality of the brand and who they are and what they're trying to accomplish. During that time I was thinking, I don't know how to grow these guys because... In other words- Stephen Semple: I'm glad this is taking so long because I need more time. Daniel Whittington: Yeah. Yeah. Because so much of the way that I've helped grow people has been very particular to my skill set, or it has been brands that could use traditional media. And this distillery, there's no need for... like I'm looking at it, I'm thinking the worst thing we could do is use traditional media because you've already owned your localized areas. And a whiskey bottle isn't just a local business, isn't HVAC where they can only service customers in a certain mileage, right?
