Putting the Pieces Together
As we grow we learn to evaluate and judge, to navigate the world with some discretion, and then we turn on ourselves. Creating can’t just be for the sake of creating anymore. It has to be good, or it has to mean something.
- Jeff Tweedy
For years I searched for a video passion project. At some point, I would consistently find myself overcome with creative paralysis. I could never mentally get past the notion that it would be a massive waste of time and money. This summer that changed.?
I found myself with all of these puzzle pieces, but I didn’t know how they fit together. I had a camera, a space where I could film, a stock subscription for music and footage, and a friend who is quite skilled at all aspects of sound. The only thing missing was a focus, what could I do that would feel worthy of my time? I pondered this question as I scrolled through whiskey reviews, organized whiskey tastings with friends, and planned a trip to the Bourbon Trail for my brother’s bachelor party.
Then one day, on my way to the office, it hit me. Billy had asked me to procure a whiskey collection for him and provided me with a budget to do so. I traveled to several stores looking for the best bang for his buck and the next time I saw him, it felt like Christmas, but not normal Christmas, Whiskey Christmas.
As I started to put together my ideas I didn’t know what I was looking to create. I had heard a lot of talk about Whiskey YouTube channels, and I thought that might be a good way to leverage my skillset and background in social media asset production.
I set out to create a space that removed some of the mystique around whiskey and opened it up for everyone to try without judgment. My sincere belief is that whiskey can be for everyone, with some exceptions, and that if you don’t like whiskey, maybe you just haven’t met the right one.
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Billy was an obvious choice for a cohost not just because he was already in the office, but also because he had just regained his sense of smell (unrelated to covid) and knew very little about whiskey, but was eager to learn.
We filmed a pilot, and when it came out to thirty-seven minutes in duration, I knew that I had to make some changes. So I went back to the outline and started fine-tuning the sections, tightening up the content, and developing branding elements. The result was our first episode which ran about twenty-two minutes. Not everything was perfect, and not every joke hit the way I thought it would, but it was good enough. When it launched the reaction was predictable, as anyone in this industry knows, organic views can be some of the hardest to procure, but I was undeterred. I had faith that it would only be a matter of time before our audience found the show.
As we moved on to future episodes, we started incorporating special guest whiskies that would target the more experienced audience and give someone new to whiskey a perspective on the difference price makes when evaluating whiskey. We also refined the strategy for our commercial breaks. When we started, we had no sponsors, but we wanted to pace the show as if we did. We also thought that these breaks would be a nice bit of visual variety for anyone who got tired of staring at two guys sitting at a table sniffing and sipping booze. The first commercial breaks were fairly simple with only a few stock clips. As they evolved we consciously chose to add to the joke by making each one more ridiculous than the last. The result is a lot more work, but a lot more rewarding.
I decided I wasn’t going to worry about this being good or meaning something, that it just needed to be fun. We’re still growing the channel and learning what levers to push and pull to promote it, but I’m proud of where we’ve taken it and excited to see where it goes in the future.