Meet Bryan Inman

We were lucky to catch up with Bryan Inman recently and have shared our conversation below.

Bryan, first a big thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts and insights with us today. I’m sure many of our readers will benefit from your wisdom, and one of the areas where we think your insight might be most helpful is related to imposter syndrome. Imposter syndrome is holding so many people back from reaching their true and highest potential and so we’d love to hear about your journey and how you overcame imposter syndrome.
I don’t think I will ever over come my imposter syndrome. And frankly, I don’t want to.

The simple truth is that the only thing that I know is that I know nothing. There is so much to learn about the rum category that I love so much.

There are so many things that I do not know about the history, former or existing brands, hello human beings promoting the category, and everything else in between.

Where I have landed is that I am ever a student eager to learn more and gain more knowledge and wisdom so I can be a better messenger for rum.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
I have always enjoyed going to tiki bars. The ambiance, the cocktail pageantry—I fell in love with them from day one.

For years, I visited tiki bars wherever I went. With the COVID lockdown, I became much more interested in the origins of tiki.

In May 2021, when people started feeling comfortable meeting in groups again, I decided to throw a Tiki party.

The only problem was that I didn’t know how to make any drinks I had been enjoying for years. So, I found a YouTube channel called Distinguished Spirits and grabbed a copy of a book called Smugglers Cove.

As I looked at these cocktail recipes, I was curious as to why certain drinks called for dark Jamaican or Demerara rum.

After the Tiki party, I began buying as many bottles of rum as I could afford and soon realized that rum is the world’s most diverse spirit.

I started my Instagram page, @therumchampion, in September 2022 to share my passion for rum.

In January 2023, I founded the Rum Curious Club and started hosting events in my apartment.

Now, rum is my full-time job. I consult with different rum brands and curate rum selections for several different liquor stores. My Rum Curious Club is now hosted at five bars throughout California.

In short, I’m a rum-obsessed lunatic who has turned passion into a career.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
1. Passion is far and away the number one skill that is needed. Without it, I would certainly not have been 2. Perseverance. Sometimes, I feel like nothing I’m doing matters. But I have an unwavering belief that rum is the world’s most diverse spirit and that the more people try it, the more they’ll love it as I do.
3. Taking breaks. Now that my passion is my full-time job, taking days off or stepping away has been difficult. There’s always something more that needs to be done—another phone call to make, another meeting to schedule, another event to schedule. I nearly burnt myself out last winter and had some sound council to take the month of January off, which was wonderful.

Alright, so before we go we want to ask you to take a moment to reflect and share what you think you would do if you somehow knew you only had a decade of life left?
The number one challenge is to overcome people’s inherent perception of rum. 1) I don’t like rum because I drank too much Captain & Coke in college.
2) Rum is just too sweet for me
3) I’ve heard it’s not that good

These are just a few examples of feedback or objections I get at events or just out and about. People think rum should not be taken seriously and certainly not on the same level as premium sipping spirits like bourbon or tequila.

And some people just won’t be convinced, which is okay. My focus is on finding the rum-curious and, at the very least, giving them samples from my Rum Library. I have 520 bottles of rum in my house!

One of the most gratifying things is when the lightbulb goes off in someone’s head. “Wow! I never knew rum could taste like this!”

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