Hi, friends, Welcome to Side Hustlers. I'm Carla Marie from my Heart Radio. I am the host of side Hustlers. Each week I talked to someone following a passion outside of their day job. Some people have actually turned that side hustle into their full time job. It's been really cool this last year and a half getting to talk to these people and hear their stories. I've been inspired by them. I know a lot of you have been inspired by them. But thank you for being here every week and for listening to this podcast, for taking time out of your day. I truly do appreciate it. I know that if you have an iPhone, you can actually set a shortcut within the shortcuts app that will actually play the podcast if you tell Siri too. You say, hey, Siri, play side Hustlers with Carla Maurie, and my phone is now doing it. So that's great. But it's cool. It is really cool. So if that's something you want to try out, go for it. You can always reach out to me at the Carla Marie on Instagram with anything about the podcast. Feel free to tag me when you're listening to the podcast. I appreciate it that it's really cool. When I see that. And if you have anyone that you really want to hear on the podcast, whether you know them or not, and you know it's a side hustle, tell me reach out to me. In this week's episode, we're going to talk to Andrew. He's coming to us from Virginia. He's a new dad. He runs a business within the food industry and he's got a side hustle called Secret Hopper. It's basically secret choppers for breweries. Let's hear andrew story for a lot of people. You know, why are you wait? Do you know what you want to do? And this is something you want to do you're talking about do it. I'm a hustles side side hustle. Do it. I'm a hustles side us. Do it. I'm a hustle side side hustlove. Come on ask about me, yo yo. It's the side hustless podcast we call the Root. Okay, So joining me today is Andrew. You're joining me from Virginia. So high from Seattle to Virginia. Very excited to be here. Thanks for having me, well, thank you, thank you for being here. I know we kind of went back and forth for a little bit over timing and everything you had emailed me right before your son was about to be born, and now he's born. So what is it like being a new dad? Well, I really don't have any idea what sleep is My wife and I we still have to forget to brush our teeth, we forget to eat, but we're running the business. We've got a brand new baby, we got a little Max. We love them so much, and life's amazing right now. He was running with adrenaline. Well, congratulations. So you have a day job and a side hustle and a new baby, and we're gonna get into how crazy and how many hours and all of that. But your day job, you run a company within the food industry. That is not your side hustle. But you are still running that whole thing. That's correct. When I was just a kid, when I was sixteen years old, I started selling snow cones at baseball games, and two years later I ended up running the company. I still have an active role running the company. And now I just get to work at all kinds of crazy sporting events and concerts all over the place. And then on top of that, you're like, oh, you know what, let me create this whole thing that does not exist, and you're gonna on your own business, and that is Secret Hopper. Now, when you first emailed me, I was like, Secret hop Like what what? I keep reading it and I'm like and then it finally clicks like, oh dull like Secret Shopper. Oh my god, this idea is genius. So I want you to explain what exactly Secret Hopper is, and I want to get into why the heck you thought of this idea. Well, Secret Hopper is a mystery shopping company specifically for craft breweries. Right now. I know you've mentioned before the Levin Breweries in your neighborhood alone. You know, when you're gonna go out and have a beer, you don't want just to go to a brewer that has an awesome beer. You want that awesome experience. So it's really our goal to help breweries maximize that experience and make sure guests are having to experience just as good as the beer. So what made you say I want to help breweries be better? So I've been a big fan of craft beer for a really long time. I've been a homebrew with friends. I've enjoyed drinking beers, enjoying taking vacations to visit breweries and just kind of combining that with my experience just running a food service and making other guests experience more worthwhile I'm like, man, I love beer. How can I have fun and beer all the time. Oh my gosh, this is an idea we can actually run, and we decided to get a go in. So what did you first do? Do you have any friends that are in the industry where you were like, hey, let me just come into your business and and rate it, Like what exactly is the process like to get a company to work with you in this aspect. So we reach out to breweries all the time, and some of the breweries are brand new operations just looking to find ways to stand out, and some of them, like a call I had earlier today, or breweries that have been around thirty years that really want to attract the newer crowd back to their business. So, whether a brewery is just looking to be the best they can be or really realizing that they need to improve, they reach out to us. We send mystery shoppers in to evaluate that customer experience to simple things like whether or not the staffs offering recommendation, whether they're engaging encouraging beer to go, things that when we say it out loud, almost being like basic customer experienced practices. But when you're in the heat of the moment working behind the bar, things might get lost in the shuffle, and we want to help make sure it was as possible. So, being a new business, then when you first launched Secret Hopper, how did you convince that first business to work with you? Well, you know what, it took about a month before we got our first client. We shot a lot of emails, we tried a lot of phone calls right back then, and then we had a larger brewery on the East coast, Flying Dog. They seemed really interested and they were one of our fourt clients and they were actually previously in Colorado years ago, but they're now home in Frederick, Maryland, and we started seeing a little traction from breweries that are more established, and that gave us a little you know, Okay, we're confident what we're doing now, there's definitely a need for it, and that kind of just got the ball rolling. Yeah, I'm sure these breweries that have been around for a while are getting a little scared that there are tons of other breweries propping up. I think you said to me, there's seventies in the world. Is that the right number of county? No, that's just in the marriage, that's just in America. Okay, that's wild to think about that. And like you said, and counting. So I'm sure these breweries that have been around forever, like, okay, we need to make sure you know we're staying on top of our game and not just turning a blind eye to all of these breweries that are starting. It's crazy that you said those are the ones that are coming to you guys, Yeah, without a doubt, because if you go to a brewery and have a bad experience, you're gonna go to the ten others in your neighborhood instead of the one where you didn't have a good time. So if I own a brewery and I want to hire secret hopper, what happens you come in and you do what exactly? Because I'm assuming, obviously my employees aren't going to know that I hired you. That is correct. We're not going to tell anyone is a secret between you and I. But what we're gonna do, We're gonna work together to create a questionnaire that captures the most important parts of your business. That way, if you're looking to make sure your staff are asking a certain question, engage, you know, on a certain level, just encouraging people take beer home with them. We're going to formulate a questionnaire that gets all the feedback that you're looking for, and then we're also going to ask you, you know, what type of shoppers would you like us to send in? Whether you want maybe twenty one year old emails you don't know a whole lot about craft beer, or maybe a fifty seven year old homebrewer who has been doing it forever. We're going to send in the exact type of shopper to collect the exact feedback they're looking for. That way they can use it to improve. And then okay, after you do that, what does mean the owner of the brewery? What do I get? When do I get it back? Is it like a report? What happens? Ye? So a lot of other mystery shopping companies might send you a sential, a novel talking about every single detail of your visit. We want to send you something you can read in two minutes and you can look at it and say that, oh, my gosh, Andrew is not doing a good job. He's not engaging with the guests he needs to do better, or on the other hand, he's doing a fantastic job, asking all the right questions, engaging on the right level. So the report's going to come after all your monthly visits, and most breweries go from about four to ten visits to model. You're going to get just the report that talks about every experience. You're gonna read through it. They're gonna have scores to kind of direct you in the direction of how you know, solid and engaging the visit was, and then you're going to use that to take to your staff and either say hey, you're doing a great job, or hey, let's just do a little bit better. We never want to look at it as a negative approach. We want to say, hey, this my where we are right now. Let's use it as a school to get even better. Because if a staff member can engage more, they're gonna get tip more, they're going to see more of that brewery. So it's really gonna bit off in everybody, and everybody is going to be more successful. Now, when you say four to ten visits a month, do you send different people to the brewery or is it like one person always checking up. Yeah, sadly, I'm not going to send you the same brewery ten days in carl and Vrewery, It's gonna be four different shoppers or ten different shoppers or whatever the number is. We want to make sure they have fresh faces. Okay, so that is something you have on your website. Anyone can sign up to be a Secret Hopper or anyone kind apply to be a Secret Hopper. How the heck does that work? So that's a great question. Tons of people want to go to breweries and have free beer. But what we're really looking for, we're looking for shoppers who can pay attention to details. So when you're going to complete the basic application at secret hopper dot com, you're also going to provide a few writing samples telling us one why you're going to be a great Secret Hopper, and to we're gonna ask you to tell us about a recent experience out of brewery. That way, we know when we send you out to a brewery in your area, you're not just gonna say, hey, I'm here for the free beer, but you're also there to make a difference and help make that brewery even better. Because you are making a difference of course, So you then I guess they're getting compensated for the beer that they buy and then their time. Yeah, it's sadly not a way to make money. Depending on the style of visit, they're either going to get a flat payment of twenty and we still have some visits that also include food that get up to forty bucks, and there's even a few where you get to take home a T shirt with you. It's not gonna pay any bills, but as a fun way to enjoy a couple of beers and make a difference. Well, people love giving opinions. They love being able to give their opinions. That is something I have learned being in this industry, whether they're asked or not. And on top of that, people love free beer. So this is like the coolest thing ever I think. If anyone listening right now, go to secret hopper dot com. You can check out everything that Andrew and I are talking about. You can even apply to be a Secret Hopper, and if you do it, please let me know because I want to hear what it's like from your end. That'd be really cool. You had said earlier that you wanted to you love breweries and you wanted to work with them. That initial thought when it came to you, is that what Secret Hopper is now? Or did you have to formulate it a little bit more so? The initial concept really was just the mystery shopping company for breweries. And really when it came to me, I was sitting at my desk, I think, just having lunch, and I'm always thinking of ideas. You know, I like having fun and I like making money. Who doesn't. So at that time, my wife Stacy was working at animal hospital, so I shot her a text and I said, Hey, Stacy, I've got this great idea for a business. She goes, okay, Andrew, what is it these ideas? And I said, we're gonna start a company called Secret Hopper's gonna be a mystery shopping company for breweries. She immediately text back, that's stupid. So of course that gave me, as it with anyone, to drive to want go and create the website, create, you know, make the questionnaires we were gonna use, and go forward. I don't think I slept for two days on words. But really the initial concept was the same in overtime, and that was in May two thousand and seventeen, just fine tune, fine tune that you know our processes and just growing the company and just had fun with it. As we continue to work hard. Well, the Stacy still think it's stupid. No, Stacy's on maternity to leave right now from Secret Hoppers employee, and she's been a huge help in this entire process of growing the company. So does she look back now being like, well, good things? She did say it was stupid because it made you want to do it even more, so I guess it was probably a good thing on her part. It was a block in disguise for sure. How many hours do you spend a week on Secret Hopper if you are still running your another business within the food industry. That's a fantastic question, because sometimes I feel like I'm running two companies at once, and I really am, so I would imagine that I probably spend at least thirty hours a week on Secret Hopper, And no matter how many hours I spend, it's not enough because I can only imagine if I had gone full in and just spend all my time on that, if I could have grown the company differently. But every free moment, I mean, now we have a baby, so I can't have been every free moment, but every free moment I'm able we put into the company. Is it just you and Stacy doing everything? Well, initially it was just me, then we brought on Stacy to help. We've actually brought on my brother to help out with a little processes as well. We recently brought on a fourth person to help out with a bunch of things behind the scenes. So we need the help and I imagine not too far from that, we'll have you stought for more people to help us out as well. So then as you're bringing on these different people, would you mind talking a little bit about what they're doing for you? Because I know that's a big thing for side hustlers who have been on this podcast. A lot of times it's like I want to hire someone, or I'm a I'm not ready to pay someone, or be I'm not ready to hand over task because this is like my baby. So what is that process like bringing someone on to represent your brand and work on your vision. So, having worked for Foods, have hired people for years, I know the type of people I can work with, and I know the people I don't want to have around, and I know what I want them to do so my brother I knew it was a really hard worker. He's the first one we brought on. He's actually somewhat of an independent contractor for us, not technically unemployee, but he handles a lot of the reporting for us. You know, we'll get the shoppers out. I do a lot of the marketing, but whenever all the reports come in from the breweries, he'll help compile them. That way I can send them out all the brewery owners and tasting your managers that I work with. So he's been a huge help with that. And you know, he does a fantastic job. But every now and then I still find myself looking over his shoulder double check can do that. I should trust him with just because you're a business owner. This is your baby. You want everything to be perfect. And now bringing on the other people, are any of them doing specific roles? Are just like, okay, everyone just help out wherever you can know they do have specific roles. The recent person I brought on is also a manager with the food service I run. And he goes to college, and he's up at school for the semester and he needs a way to pay a few bills so we brought him on to work remotely and he's just helping us schedule our shoppers at the brewery does Incrediver. He has free can away from his studies. He's helping us out. That's really really cool. What is social media for you? Like? Because I saw that you have Facebook, which is Facebook dot com slash Secret Hopper, and everyone who has been on this podcast their business is where it is or their main means of marketing. I guess I could say is social media. I think you're one of the first businesses where it's not necessarily social media driven because you don't have a product that people are going to go look at. It's more of a service. So I guess, how do you as a company use social media and why do you think it's different than like these other companies who use it all the time. So I do use social media all the time. I use it for you different reasons. Actually, as a business, we love to engage daily with all of our Secret Shoppers will pose questions on just to get you know, communication going. We love having conversations, we love to get to know people, we love sharing information. So just today I posted a question on the Secret Hopper Facebook you know, how do you prefer to drink your beer? Do you like it out of a regular point glass or do you like it out of maybe a fancy class specifically for an I p aly just conversation going. It gets people pumped about what we're doing, and it's great because then you can see what and you can also go back to breweries. Was Hey, this is what our beer community is saying. And so another way social media has been good for us is it's been a recruiting tool as well, because I am secret shoppers in places that we've probably never even heard of. There's small towns across America that we are working with breweries there, and you know, I don't know anyone there. We don't have shoppers already signed up. So I have probably joined a million Facebook groups, whether it's a yard sale group, a beer group. I am. I don't even want to admit to how many Facebook groups I'm a member of, but I'll just go in. I'll ask the administrator, hey, can I share this opportunity and then we'll get the local community excited and encourage them to sign up for a secret shopper. I do that, and I also posted a lot of beer groups about what we do. Because we collect a lot of early unique data, we share a bunch of cool stories. And they're pretty receptive too, So I'm always on the internet. Yeah, from what I've learned and been apart, like gone out in places like the beer community is very receptive and accepting of new people, and just like it's a good community to be a part of. So I'm sure it's great for you to be able to get feedback from the people who are really in that community. And going to breweries all the time. Oh yeah, And I love learning too, so I can learn about what's going on in a brewery here or Seattle. You know, it's just fascinated to seeing me what's going on across the country. Do you have secret hoppers shoppers? I see, I keep getting caught up. Do you have secret hoppers in Seattle? We do. We are active in your area. We should probably get you out soon. I know I want to do it. It's great because I need to be gluten free. So if I go onto a bar and where they have cider or something that I can drink, I can throw that at them and see if they know what to tell me. Because that's cool. No, I don't know if it's near you, but I believe there is a brewery in Washington that's making strictly gluten free deer also get back to Yeah for sure, I know um sound will that would be soundcraft selter. But it is a brewery and I know that that's all gluten free and that's um part of two beers brewing. Um. But yeah, there's there's so many. I will happily be one. It would be so fun just to try it out. And then we've got um Fred the mailman who was on this podcast as a side hustler. So from his mailman job with the Postal Service, his uh side hustle is a brewery and it's Basquill Brewery in Lorraine, Ohio. So I gotta get him connected with you. That would be awesome. Oh yeah, Ohio. They've got great things going on with their craft beer. It's actually been one of our most active states. They really appreciate that good experience, they really do, and they just love beer a lot there. So absolutely would love to to make that happen. That's really cool. Have you gotten to travel to different cities because of Secret Hopper? So we have traveled a bit, but Saddly, I'm not the one shopping all these breweries. A couple of years ago, my wife and I we went up to the Great American Beer Fest, where we met a lot of the breweries were working with face to say, I've done a lot of other travels, and neatly enough through the food service I run. It's a traveling company as well. I've got to combine some of my trips to go visit brewery owners and also, you know, work that job. So I have done all over the plate. That's really cool. Do you have plans to one day just do a Secret Hopper or you're gonna always try to do both. So now having a baby and we'll just spend more time at home, I would like to possibly travel a little bit less through the food service and put a little less hours in. But I love it. I get to work at all kinds of special events, So I never really want to stop doing it because something I've done nearly all my life and I enjoy doing it. But ideally, Secret Hopper is potentially, at this moment in time becoming not the side house so much longer, but it's becoming, you know, the main source, and it's fantastic that we've got to this point. Yeah, it's pretty crazy how your side hustle then just becomes your main hustle. There's so many people that thought has happened to where they're like, oh, I just wanted to do this because I enjoyed it. I like beer, or I like you know, making bathing suits. But then it takes over your whole life and that becomes your main hustle and people are able to leave the corporate world to do the thing they're passionate about. But it all starts as the side hustle, which is really cool. Yeah, you just said it. It's all about that passion because passion will cause you not to sleep, passionate cause you work endless hours and just push along and you'll be happy doing it, which is crazy because when you're working for someone else it doesn't always feel that way. Indeed, um, when you have to start when you started Secret Hopper, I know obviously a lot of companies sometimes people have to invest in a product or there's like a lot of overhead for you. Was it just buying the name and building out the website, because I guess you technically didn't need to buy products. No, and we didn't have a lot of overhead at all. I mean, we got the website, which we got through square Space. We got a logo design as a really great website. You probably know it called fiber Oh fiber all we love fibers. Five dollar logo for us that we still use today because someone I got connected with it's mind bottling. I forgot about five or for a while, and then a week this weekend my friend brought it up to me again and I was like, oh my god, I forgot about that gym, and it's like, it's crazy you could get anything for five bucks on there. Yeah, so we've been really great with that. I actually met a guy in the Middle East to now we kind of subcond track to do some work. He just sends out information to breweries for us, so he helps paths out you know, information on the internet through email about what we're doing. So, yeah, we met him through fiber. It's wild. It really is wild. Um. So that is great though, that you kind of just all right, you were able to hit the ground run and technically right away you just got the trademark. Now do you have to do anything in the I guess because it's alcohol related. Are there any specific roles you have to follow as a company or it's just really it doesn't matter. No, we just disclose everything. I mean, we have a liability form that comes along with independent contract agreement that our lawyers drew up. So we did have some legal costs, like you said, trademark and just some documents that we needed. Is to make sure we're done correctly. Besides that, we haven't had any issue specific alcohol. And we make everybody aware that when they go into assignments, one is your responsibility to be safe. And you're gonna consume maybe a flight and a point, haven't designated driver and be safe and have fun. Yeah, you're not going to get wasted out a brewery all night. That's not how this way send you. I'm gonna remember anything, yeah, And that's why we like to keep it at about you know that when they have two drinks. But the reports about questions, because after you've had a couple of drinks, like you said, it's kind of hard to remember. More than that, it is I would not do I'll keep that in mind. I would not do well at that part. When you first emailed me, you had listened to the modern fertility episode of Side Hustlers, and you said you and your wife had gone through IVF. What was that process? Like, I guess going through IVF while doing two jobs at the same time, it was extremely tough and through the process and its entirety, my wife was a complete thing. We went through two rounds of IVF. In the first round obviously wasn't successful, but after that we went to the Great American Beer Fests. We got a little jump start there. Then afterwards she got into round two and I think I gave her way too many shots in her butt, which is part of the IVF process, so she became immune to the pains of needles. And really it just gave us the drive to keep working hard. And although when I crew aided Secret Hoppers and she joined on, we didn't foresee this as the means to get the place we need to be to have our son. But looking back on it, I don't know how we could have afforded to go through the process twice without growing a company that also ultimately helped us, you know, do it. And it's really a blessing in disguise. So baby Max is a beer baby technically, well, it's Cnny enough. Max's middle name is Brewer, which is not because he's a beer baby. It's actually a family name in Stacey's sides, little family significance, and of course I didn't disagree when she suggested it. Okay, that might be the most badass name ever. You better get his Instagram handles, his emails a SAP because that is such a cool name. Oh my god, I'm gonna reach out to you to name my kid one day. How did you because you reached out to me, How the hell did you find this podcast? So? I listened to way too many podcasts, and I think I heard a add for yours on another podcast, either about business jobs, something that he knows where. And you know, that Modern Fertility episode was actually the first one I listened to it and called my eye end. It's just you like learning, and when you can listen to another person's podcast how they had their little side hustle exists, you want one little takeaway and if you can learn one thing from that podcast, it makes my day better. So that's what I looked forward when I listened to these little podcasts for me on this end, hearing everyone's stories and how and why they started. It's been really cool for me, inspiring for me, and that is not what I set out to do it all with this podcast, and just to get that in return has been the coolest reward. So I'm glad that you're also getting something like that from this. Before we chatted, you said something about being on another podcast. Have you found that that is a cool way to market Secret Hopper. Yeah, it's actually been a really great way. There's a lot of podcasts that have reached out to us, one because they're interested in beer, but a lot of people have reached out to us too because they just like the business concept that we're doing. So I've been on, like I said, more craft beer specific podcast but I've also been on the podcasts that are is more business related, curious about how we launched our company. And in addition to marketing the podcast, the guy we've hired overseas, we actually have him reach out daily to newspapers to say, hey, if you need a resource for craft beer information, come to us. That's cool. We're always trying to get our name out there in any way we can. That's super smart because and also newspaper is not like where I would immediately go, but I feel like newspapers, probably the kind of people that are like, hey, we need to stay hip, and this is what's cool freer is let's link up with these people. It's really smart. I don't know if that's where you were going when you thought about it at first, but that's where my mind just went with reaching out to newspapers. Oh yeah, I mean people still read them. It's true. I mean they do still exist. We we tend to forget that from time to time. Okay, well, I can't let you go without asking you your favorite beer. I know that's a hard question, but do you have a favorite beer? So I'm gonna tis that question what we do. So through all my travels, one of my favor a your breweries that I visited as a brewery in St. Louis called Perennial. Perennial Brewering makes really fantastic beer. One of the reasons I love their beer so much is when you go there, you get a great meal, you get a great beer. But the first time I ever went, I met a bartender there and she was super fantastic. You know, let me try a lot of things, was really personal engaging. Taught me a lot about the brewery. Had a great time. I went back a year later, she remembered exactly who I was, So that not only made me like this even more and they are one of my favorite breweries, but made me respect that brewery as a whole because they're doing amazing things and they're getting their staff passionate about their beer enough to want to connect with the guests who they saw once in. Yeah, that was really cool. That's wild. So I'm assuming they got a good report from you, because that's amazing. They knew they are doing a good day. Yeah, absolutely well. I want people to sign up to be Secret Hoppers. So go to secret hopper dot com. Support Andrews. Sign up. If you know when local breweries or owners of local breweries from where you are, let them know about Secret Hopper. But don't tell anyone except for me. You're being a secret Hopper. Andrew, thank you so much for doing this and uh and taking time away from your wife and your new baby. I appreciate it, really appreciate it. About thanks again. Okay, so go to secret hopper dot com. I really really want everyone possible to sign up to be a Secret Hopper. I think would be so cool to do this if you're doing it, please let me know because I really want to hear about your experience, and I just know how many people are supporting Andrew. I mean, come on, free beer can't beat that. It's pretty freaking awesome again. Reach out to me on Instagram at the Carla Marie. If you don't have social media, I'm Side Hustlers Podcast at gmail dot com. Side Hustler's Podcast at gmail dot com. Rate and review this podcast, subscribe to it and set up that series shortcut and until next week, keep Ustling, the weekly podcast that started it all. They just wanted to have fun as they dreamt of one day having their own morning show, and now they do. But the tradition continues. Every Friday. My Day Friday with Carla Marie and Anthony, available worldwide on the I Heart Radio kick Off Your Weekend with Carla Marie and Anthony

Hi, friends, Welcome to Side Hustlers. I'm Carla Marie from my Heart Radio. I am the host of side Hustlers. Each week I talked to someone following a passion outside of their day job. Some people have actually turned that side hustle into their full time job. It's been really cool this last year and a half getting to talk to these people and hear their stories. I've been inspired by them. I know a lot of you have been inspired by them. But thank you for being here every week and for listening to this podcast, for taking time out of your day. I truly do appreciate it. I know that if you have an iPhone, you can actually set a shortcut within the shortcuts app that will actually play the podcast if you tell Siri too. You say, hey, Siri, play side Hustlers with Carla Maurie, and my phone is now doing it. So that's great. But it's cool. It is really cool. So if that's something you want to try out, go for it. You can always reach out to me at the Carla Marie on Instagram with anything about the podcast. Feel free to tag me when you're listening to the podcast. I appreciate it that it's really cool. When I see that. And if you have anyone that you really want to hear on the podcast, whether you know them or not, and you know it's a side hustle, tell me reach out to me. In this week's episode, we're going to talk to Andrew. He's coming to us from Virginia. He's a new dad. He runs a business within the food industry and he's got a side hustle called Secret Hopper. It's basically secret choppers for breweries. Let's hear andrew story for a lot of people. You know, why are you wait? Do you know what you want to do? And this is something you want to do you're talking about do it. I'm a hustles side side hustle. Do it. I'm a hustles side us. Do it. I'm a hustle side side hustlove. Come on ask about me, yo yo. It's the side hustless podcast we call the Root. Okay, So joining me today is Andrew. You're joining me from Virginia. So high from Seattle to Virginia. Very excited to be here. Thanks for having me, well, thank you, thank you for being here. I know we kind of went back and forth for a little bit over timing and everything you had emailed me right before your son was about to be born, and now he's born. So what is it like being a new dad? Well, I really don't have any idea what sleep is My wife and I we still have to forget to brush our teeth, we forget to eat, but we're running the business. We've got a brand new baby, we got a little Max. We love them so much, and life's amazing right now. He was running with adrenaline. Well, congratulations. So you have a day job and a side hustle and a new baby, and we're gonna get into how crazy and how many hours and all of that. But your day job, you run a company within the food industry. That is not your side hustle. But you are still running that whole thing. That's correct. When I was just a kid, when I was sixteen years old, I started selling snow cones at baseball games, and two years later I ended up running the company. I still have an active role running the company. And now I just get to work at all kinds of crazy sporting events and concerts all over the place. And then on top of that, you're like, oh, you know what, let me create this whole thing that does not exist, and you're gonna on your own business, and that is Secret Hopper. Now, when you first emailed me, I was like, Secret hop Like what what? I keep reading it and I'm like and then it finally clicks like, oh dull like Secret Shopper. Oh my god, this idea is genius. So I want you to explain what exactly Secret Hopper is, and I want to get into why the heck you thought of this idea. Well, Secret Hopper is a mystery shopping company specifically for craft breweries. Right now. I know you've mentioned before the Levin Breweries in your neighborhood alone. You know, when you're gonna go out and have a beer, you don't want just to go to a brewer that has an awesome beer. You want that awesome experience. So it's really our goal to help breweries maximize that experience and make sure guests are having to experience just as good as the beer. So what made you say I want to help breweries be better? So I've been a big fan of craft beer for a really long time. I've been a homebrew with friends. I've enjoyed drinking beers, enjoying taking vacations to visit breweries and just kind of combining that with my experience just running a food service and making other guests experience more worthwhile I'm like, man, I love beer. How can I have fun and beer all the time. Oh my gosh, this is an idea we can actually run, and we decided to get a go in. So what did you first do? Do you have any friends that are in the industry where you were like, hey, let me just come into your business and and rate it, Like what exactly is the process like to get a company to work with you in this aspect. So we reach out to breweries all the time, and some of the breweries are brand new operations just looking to find ways to stand out, and some of them, like a call I had earlier today, or breweries that have been around thirty years that really want to attract the newer crowd back to their business. So, whether a brewery is just looking to be the best they can be or really realizing that they need to improve, they reach out to us. We send mystery shoppers in to evaluate that customer experience to simple things like whether or not the staffs offering recommendation, whether they're engaging encouraging beer to go, things that when we say it out loud, almost being like basic customer experienced practices. But when you're in the heat of the moment working behind the bar, things might get lost in the shuffle, and we want to help make sure it was as possible. So, being a new business, then when you first launched Secret Hopper, how did you convince that first business to work with you? Well, you know what, it took about a month before we got our first client. We shot a lot of emails, we tried a lot of phone calls right back then, and then we had a larger brewery on the East coast, Flying Dog. They seemed really interested and they were one of our fourt clients and they were actually previously in Colorado years ago, but they're now home in Frederick, Maryland, and we started seeing a little traction from breweries that are more established, and that gave us a little you know, Okay, we're confident what we're doing now, there's definitely a need for it, and that kind of just got the ball rolling. Yeah, I'm sure these breweries that have been around for a while are getting a little scared that there are tons of other breweries propping up. I think you said to me, there's seventies in the world. Is that the right number of county? No, that's just in the marriage, that's just in America. Okay, that's wild to think about that. And like you said, and counting. So I'm sure these breweries that have been around forever, like, okay, we need to make sure you know we're staying on top of our game and not just turning a blind eye to all of these breweries that are starting. It's crazy that you said those are the ones that are coming to you guys, Yeah, without a doubt, because if you go to a brewery and have a bad experience, you're gonna go to the ten others in your neighborhood instead of the one where you didn't have a good time. So if I own a brewery and I want to hire secret hopper, what happens you come in and you do what exactly? Because I'm assuming, obviously my employees aren't going to know that I hired you. That is correct. We're not going to tell anyone is a secret between you and I. But what we're gonna do, We're gonna work together to create a questionnaire that captures the most important parts of your business. That way, if you're looking to make sure your staff are asking a certain question, engage, you know, on a certain level, just encouraging people take beer home with them. We're going to formulate a questionnaire that gets all the feedback that you're looking for, and then we're also going to ask you, you know, what type of shoppers would you like us to send in? Whether you want maybe twenty one year old emails you don't know a whole lot about craft beer, or maybe a fifty seven year old homebrewer who has been doing it forever. We're going to send in the exact type of shopper to collect the exact feedback they're looking for. That way they can use it to improve. And then okay, after you do that, what does mean the owner of the brewery? What do I get? When do I get it back? Is it like a report? What happens? Ye? So a lot of other mystery shopping companies might send you a sential, a novel talking about every single detail of your visit. We want to send you something you can read in two minutes and you can look at it and say that, oh, my gosh, Andrew is not doing a good job. He's not engaging with the guests he needs to do better, or on the other hand, he's doing a fantastic job, asking all the right questions, engaging on the right level. So the report's going to come after all your monthly visits, and most breweries go from about four to ten visits to model. You're going to get just the report that talks about every experience. You're gonna read through it. They're gonna have scores to kind of direct you in the direction of how you know, solid and engaging the visit was, and then you're going to use that to take to your staff and either say hey, you're doing a great job, or hey, let's just do a little bit better. We never want to look at it as a negative approach. We want to say, hey, this my where we are right now. Let's use it as a school to get even better. Because if a staff member can engage more, they're gonna get tip more, they're going to see more of that brewery. So it's really gonna bit off in everybody, and everybody is going to be more successful. Now, when you say four to ten visits a month, do you send different people to the brewery or is it like one person always checking up. Yeah, sadly, I'm not going to send you the same brewery ten days in carl and Vrewery, It's gonna be four different shoppers or ten different shoppers or whatever the number is. We want to make sure they have fresh faces. Okay, so that is something you have on your website. Anyone can sign up to be a Secret Hopper or anyone kind apply to be a Secret Hopper. How the heck does that work? So that's a great question. Tons of people want to go to breweries and have free beer. But what we're really looking for, we're looking for shoppers who can pay attention to details. So when you're going to complete the basic application at secret hopper dot com, you're also going to provide a few writing samples telling us one why you're going to be a great Secret Hopper, and to we're gonna ask you to tell us about a recent experience out of brewery. That way, we know when we send you out to a brewery in your area, you're not just gonna say, hey, I'm here for the free beer, but you're also there to make a difference and help make that brewery even better. Because you are making a difference of course, So you then I guess they're getting compensated for the beer that they buy and then their time. Yeah, it's sadly not a way to make money. Depending on the style of visit, they're either going to get a flat payment of twenty and we still have some visits that also include food that get up to forty bucks, and there's even a few where you get to take home a T shirt with you. It's not gonna pay any bills, but as a fun way to enjoy a couple of beers and make a difference. Well, people love giving opinions. They love being able to give their opinions. That is something I have learned being in this industry, whether they're asked or not. And on top of that, people love free beer. So this is like the coolest thing ever I think. If anyone listening right now, go to secret hopper dot com. You can check out everything that Andrew and I are talking about. You can even apply to be a Secret Hopper, and if you do it, please let me know because I want to hear what it's like from your end. That'd be really cool. You had said earlier that you wanted to you love breweries and you wanted to work with them. That initial thought when it came to you, is that what Secret Hopper is now? Or did you have to formulate it a little bit more so? The initial concept really was just the mystery shopping company for breweries. And really when it came to me, I was sitting at my desk, I think, just having lunch, and I'm always thinking of ideas. You know, I like having fun and I like making money. Who doesn't. So at that time, my wife Stacy was working at animal hospital, so I shot her a text and I said, Hey, Stacy, I've got this great idea for a business. She goes, okay, Andrew, what is it these ideas? And I said, we're gonna start a company called Secret Hopper's gonna be a mystery shopping company for breweries. She immediately text back, that's stupid. So of course that gave me, as it with anyone, to drive to want go and create the website, create, you know, make the questionnaires we were gonna use, and go forward. I don't think I slept for two days on words. But really the initial concept was the same in overtime, and that was in May two thousand and seventeen, just fine tune, fine tune that you know our processes and just growing the company and just had fun with it. As we continue to work hard. Well, the Stacy still think it's stupid. No, Stacy's on maternity to leave right now from Secret Hoppers employee, and she's been a huge help in this entire process of growing the company. So does she look back now being like, well, good things? She did say it was stupid because it made you want to do it even more, so I guess it was probably a good thing on her part. It was a block in disguise for sure. How many hours do you spend a week on Secret Hopper if you are still running your another business within the food industry. That's a fantastic question, because sometimes I feel like I'm running two companies at once, and I really am, so I would imagine that I probably spend at least thirty hours a week on Secret Hopper, And no matter how many hours I spend, it's not enough because I can only imagine if I had gone full in and just spend all my time on that, if I could have grown the company differently. But every free moment, I mean, now we have a baby, so I can't have been every free moment, but every free moment I'm able we put into the company. Is it just you and Stacy doing everything? Well, initially it was just me, then we brought on Stacy to help. We've actually brought on my brother to help out with a little processes as well. We recently brought on a fourth person to help out with a bunch of things behind the scenes. So we need the help and I imagine not too far from that, we'll have you stought for more people to help us out as well. So then as you're bringing on these different people, would you mind talking a little bit about what they're doing for you? Because I know that's a big thing for side hustlers who have been on this podcast. A lot of times it's like I want to hire someone, or I'm a I'm not ready to pay someone, or be I'm not ready to hand over task because this is like my baby. So what is that process like bringing someone on to represent your brand and work on your vision. So, having worked for Foods, have hired people for years, I know the type of people I can work with, and I know the people I don't want to have around, and I know what I want them to do so my brother I knew it was a really hard worker. He's the first one we brought on. He's actually somewhat of an independent contractor for us, not technically unemployee, but he handles a lot of the reporting for us. You know, we'll get the shoppers out. I do a lot of the marketing, but whenever all the reports come in from the breweries, he'll help compile them. That way I can send them out all the brewery owners and tasting your managers that I work with. So he's been a huge help with that. And you know, he does a fantastic job. But every now and then I still find myself looking over his shoulder double check can do that. I should trust him with just because you're a business owner. This is your baby. You want everything to be perfect. And now bringing on the other people, are any of them doing specific roles? Are just like, okay, everyone just help out wherever you can know they do have specific roles. The recent person I brought on is also a manager with the food service I run. And he goes to college, and he's up at school for the semester and he needs a way to pay a few bills so we brought him on to work remotely and he's just helping us schedule our shoppers at the brewery does Incrediver. He has free can away from his studies. He's helping us out. That's really really cool. What is social media for you? Like? Because I saw that you have Facebook, which is Facebook dot com slash Secret Hopper, and everyone who has been on this podcast their business is where it is or their main means of marketing. I guess I could say is social media. I think you're one of the first businesses where it's not necessarily social media driven because you don't have a product that people are going to go look at. It's more of a service. So I guess, how do you as a company use social media and why do you think it's different than like these other companies who use it all the time. So I do use social media all the time. I use it for you different reasons. Actually, as a business, we love to engage daily with all of our Secret Shoppers will pose questions on just to get you know, communication going. We love having conversations, we love to get to know people, we love sharing information. So just today I posted a question on the Secret Hopper Facebook you know, how do you prefer to drink your beer? Do you like it out of a regular point glass or do you like it out of maybe a fancy class specifically for an I p aly just conversation going. It gets people pumped about what we're doing, and it's great because then you can see what and you can also go back to breweries. Was Hey, this is what our beer community is saying. And so another way social media has been good for us is it's been a recruiting tool as well, because I am secret shoppers in places that we've probably never even heard of. There's small towns across America that we are working with breweries there, and you know, I don't know anyone there. We don't have shoppers already signed up. So I have probably joined a million Facebook groups, whether it's a yard sale group, a beer group. I am. I don't even want to admit to how many Facebook groups I'm a member of, but I'll just go in. I'll ask the administrator, hey, can I share this opportunity and then we'll get the local community excited and encourage them to sign up for a secret shopper. I do that, and I also posted a lot of beer groups about what we do. Because we collect a lot of early unique data, we share a bunch of cool stories. And they're pretty receptive too, So I'm always on the internet. Yeah, from what I've learned and been apart, like gone out in places like the beer community is very receptive and accepting of new people, and just like it's a good community to be a part of. So I'm sure it's great for you to be able to get feedback from the people who are really in that community. And going to breweries all the time. Oh yeah, And I love learning too, so I can learn about what's going on in a brewery here or Seattle. You know, it's just fascinated to seeing me what's going on across the country. Do you have secret hoppers shoppers? I see, I keep getting caught up. Do you have secret hoppers in Seattle? We do. We are active in your area. We should probably get you out soon. I know I want to do it. It's great because I need to be gluten free. So if I go onto a bar and where they have cider or something that I can drink, I can throw that at them and see if they know what to tell me. Because that's cool. No, I don't know if it's near you, but I believe there is a brewery in Washington that's making strictly gluten free deer also get back to Yeah for sure, I know um sound will that would be soundcraft selter. But it is a brewery and I know that that's all gluten free and that's um part of two beers brewing. Um. But yeah, there's there's so many. I will happily be one. It would be so fun just to try it out. And then we've got um Fred the mailman who was on this podcast as a side hustler. So from his mailman job with the Postal Service, his uh side hustle is a brewery and it's Basquill Brewery in Lorraine, Ohio. So I gotta get him connected with you. That would be awesome. Oh yeah, Ohio. They've got great things going on with their craft beer. It's actually been one of our most active states. They really appreciate that good experience, they really do, and they just love beer a lot there. So absolutely would love to to make that happen. That's really cool. Have you gotten to travel to different cities because of Secret Hopper? So we have traveled a bit, but Saddly, I'm not the one shopping all these breweries. A couple of years ago, my wife and I we went up to the Great American Beer Fest, where we met a lot of the breweries were working with face to say, I've done a lot of other travels, and neatly enough through the food service I run. It's a traveling company as well. I've got to combine some of my trips to go visit brewery owners and also, you know, work that job. So I have done all over the plate. That's really cool. Do you have plans to one day just do a Secret Hopper or you're gonna always try to do both. So now having a baby and we'll just spend more time at home, I would like to possibly travel a little bit less through the food service and put a little less hours in. But I love it. I get to work at all kinds of special events, So I never really want to stop doing it because something I've done nearly all my life and I enjoy doing it. But ideally, Secret Hopper is potentially, at this moment in time becoming not the side house so much longer, but it's becoming, you know, the main source, and it's fantastic that we've got to this point. Yeah, it's pretty crazy how your side hustle then just becomes your main hustle. There's so many people that thought has happened to where they're like, oh, I just wanted to do this because I enjoyed it. I like beer, or I like you know, making bathing suits. But then it takes over your whole life and that becomes your main hustle and people are able to leave the corporate world to do the thing they're passionate about. But it all starts as the side hustle, which is really cool. Yeah, you just said it. It's all about that passion because passion will cause you not to sleep, passionate cause you work endless hours and just push along and you'll be happy doing it, which is crazy because when you're working for someone else it doesn't always feel that way. Indeed, um, when you have to start when you started Secret Hopper, I know obviously a lot of companies sometimes people have to invest in a product or there's like a lot of overhead for you. Was it just buying the name and building out the website, because I guess you technically didn't need to buy products. No, and we didn't have a lot of overhead at all. I mean, we got the website, which we got through square Space. We got a logo design as a really great website. You probably know it called fiber Oh fiber all we love fibers. Five dollar logo for us that we still use today because someone I got connected with it's mind bottling. I forgot about five or for a while, and then a week this weekend my friend brought it up to me again and I was like, oh my god, I forgot about that gym, and it's like, it's crazy you could get anything for five bucks on there. Yeah, so we've been really great with that. I actually met a guy in the Middle East to now we kind of subcond track to do some work. He just sends out information to breweries for us, so he helps paths out you know, information on the internet through email about what we're doing. So, yeah, we met him through fiber. It's wild. It really is wild. Um. So that is great though, that you kind of just all right, you were able to hit the ground run and technically right away you just got the trademark. Now do you have to do anything in the I guess because it's alcohol related. Are there any specific roles you have to follow as a company or it's just really it doesn't matter. No, we just disclose everything. I mean, we have a liability form that comes along with independent contract agreement that our lawyers drew up. So we did have some legal costs, like you said, trademark and just some documents that we needed. Is to make sure we're done correctly. Besides that, we haven't had any issue specific alcohol. And we make everybody aware that when they go into assignments, one is your responsibility to be safe. And you're gonna consume maybe a flight and a point, haven't designated driver and be safe and have fun. Yeah, you're not going to get wasted out a brewery all night. That's not how this way send you. I'm gonna remember anything, yeah, And that's why we like to keep it at about you know that when they have two drinks. But the reports about questions, because after you've had a couple of drinks, like you said, it's kind of hard to remember. More than that, it is I would not do I'll keep that in mind. I would not do well at that part. When you first emailed me, you had listened to the modern fertility episode of Side Hustlers, and you said you and your wife had gone through IVF. What was that process? Like, I guess going through IVF while doing two jobs at the same time, it was extremely tough and through the process and its entirety, my wife was a complete thing. We went through two rounds of IVF. In the first round obviously wasn't successful, but after that we went to the Great American Beer Fests. We got a little jump start there. Then afterwards she got into round two and I think I gave her way too many shots in her butt, which is part of the IVF process, so she became immune to the pains of needles. And really it just gave us the drive to keep working hard. And although when I crew aided Secret Hoppers and she joined on, we didn't foresee this as the means to get the place we need to be to have our son. But looking back on it, I don't know how we could have afforded to go through the process twice without growing a company that also ultimately helped us, you know, do it. And it's really a blessing in disguise. So baby Max is a beer baby technically, well, it's Cnny enough. Max's middle name is Brewer, which is not because he's a beer baby. It's actually a family name in Stacey's sides, little family significance, and of course I didn't disagree when she suggested it. Okay, that might be the most badass name ever. You better get his Instagram handles, his emails a SAP because that is such a cool name. Oh my god, I'm gonna reach out to you to name my kid one day. How did you because you reached out to me, How the hell did you find this podcast? So? I listened to way too many podcasts, and I think I heard a add for yours on another podcast, either about business jobs, something that he knows where. And you know, that Modern Fertility episode was actually the first one I listened to it and called my eye end. It's just you like learning, and when you can listen to another person's podcast how they had their little side hustle exists, you want one little takeaway and if you can learn one thing from that podcast, it makes my day better. So that's what I looked forward when I listened to these little podcasts for me on this end, hearing everyone's stories and how and why they started. It's been really cool for me, inspiring for me, and that is not what I set out to do it all with this podcast, and just to get that in return has been the coolest reward. So I'm glad that you're also getting something like that from this. Before we chatted, you said something about being on another podcast. Have you found that that is a cool way to market Secret Hopper. Yeah, it's actually been a really great way. There's a lot of podcasts that have reached out to us, one because they're interested in beer, but a lot of people have reached out to us too because they just like the business concept that we're doing. So I've been on, like I said, more craft beer specific podcast but I've also been on the podcasts that are is more business related, curious about how we launched our company. And in addition to marketing the podcast, the guy we've hired overseas, we actually have him reach out daily to newspapers to say, hey, if you need a resource for craft beer information, come to us. That's cool. We're always trying to get our name out there in any way we can. That's super smart because and also newspaper is not like where I would immediately go, but I feel like newspapers, probably the kind of people that are like, hey, we need to stay hip, and this is what's cool freer is let's link up with these people. It's really smart. I don't know if that's where you were going when you thought about it at first, but that's where my mind just went with reaching out to newspapers. Oh yeah, I mean people still read them. It's true. I mean they do still exist. We we tend to forget that from time to time. Okay, well, I can't let you go without asking you your favorite beer. I know that's a hard question, but do you have a favorite beer? So I'm gonna tis that question what we do. So through all my travels, one of my favor a your breweries that I visited as a brewery in St. Louis called Perennial. Perennial Brewering makes really fantastic beer. One of the reasons I love their beer so much is when you go there, you get a great meal, you get a great beer. But the first time I ever went, I met a bartender there and she was super fantastic. You know, let me try a lot of things, was really personal engaging. Taught me a lot about the brewery. Had a great time. I went back a year later, she remembered exactly who I was, So that not only made me like this even more and they are one of my favorite breweries, but made me respect that brewery as a whole because they're doing amazing things and they're getting their staff passionate about their beer enough to want to connect with the guests who they saw once in. Yeah, that was really cool. That's wild. So I'm assuming they got a good report from you, because that's amazing. They knew they are doing a good day. Yeah, absolutely well. I want people to sign up to be Secret Hoppers. So go to secret hopper dot com. Support Andrews. Sign up. If you know when local breweries or owners of local breweries from where you are, let them know about Secret Hopper. But don't tell anyone except for me. You're being a secret Hopper. Andrew, thank you so much for doing this and uh and taking time away from your wife and your new baby. I appreciate it, really appreciate it. About thanks again. Okay, so go to secret hopper dot com. I really really want everyone possible to sign up to be a Secret Hopper. I think would be so cool to do this if you're doing it, please let me know because I really want to hear about your experience, and I just know how many people are supporting Andrew. I mean, come on, free beer can't beat that. It's pretty freaking awesome again. Reach out to me on Instagram at the Carla Marie. If you don't have social media, I'm Side Hustlers Podcast at gmail dot com. Side Hustler's Podcast at gmail dot com. Rate and review this podcast, subscribe to it and set up that series shortcut and until next week, keep Ustling, the weekly podcast that started it all. They just wanted to have fun as they dreamt of one day having their own morning show, and now they do. But the tradition continues. Every Friday. My Day Friday with Carla Marie and Anthony, available worldwide on the I Heart Radio kick Off Your Weekend with Carla Marie and Anthony