Meet Chad Hopkins

We recently connected with Chad Hopkins and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Chad, thanks for sharing your insights with our community today. Part of your success, no doubt, is due to your work ethic and so we’d love if you could open up about where you got your work ethic from?

This is more of a long-winded story of my childhood, but I don’t many people experienced what I experienced growing up.

My mother was 19 when I was born and my father didn’t stay around long. My mom worked full-time and went to college full-time, so I spent a lot of that time with my grandparents.

We were very poor and my mom worked hard to survive. When my mom moved in with my soon-to-be stepfather, we moved from an apartment to a tiny house, where I barely had a bedroom.

Both of them worked hard and worked full-time. They were entrepreneurs – my mom started her own cleaning business. My stepfather had worked his way up from sales to management of an auto-body franchise, which he eventually was able to buy. My mom closed her cleaning business and worked with my stepfather running the business together. When finances allowed, they invested in their own residential real estate business as well.

We went from being poor to living in the most desirable neighborhood in SLC by the time I was in high school.

My parents were both raised with strong work-ethic. My stepfather never had the opportunity to go to college, but he knew the value of work-ethic – which he taught me.

Even though my parents had become wealthy, they wanted me to learn to be independent and make it on my own, just as they had. I had no opportunity to manage or own their business and nothing was ever handed to me – I had to earn my way.

My relationship with my mother and my stepfather were never great. My mother gave birth to my half-sister when I was almost 16 and they were focused on their businesses and their lives and their new family together and I had to make it on my own.

I moved out when I was 17; a junior in high school. I stayed with friends until I was 18, then I was able to get my own apartment and work full-time, all while finishing my senior year. After high school, I worked two jobs to be able to afford the lifestyle I wanted to live.

While I was not sure what I wanted to do with my life and I couldn’t afford college, I joined the Army Reserves – which I did not like. I learned that I had a problem with authority, probably because of my relationship with my stepfather. It did teach me to respect life and be grateful for what I have.

Upon returning from the military, I worked my way up in restaurants and became the General Manager of a restaurant by age 22. This is when I really knew what I wanted to do.

I did finally go to College at 28, when I could afford it.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?

There’s a lot I’m able to do with my business and I’m very passionate about what I do. I care about our community and our environment.

We’re a gastrobrewery – a bar, a restaurant, a brewery. We’re also a music venue. We’re an art venue. We support local businesses, people, charities, and we give back to the community.

I didn’t open this business for the money, but for the culture and what I’m able to do in my community – right where I grew up.

We have a huge focus on local – we make our own beer that we only sell in-house, but we also sell beer from other local breweries. We sell local distilled spirits and make cocktails using them and other local ingredients. We use local and sustainable ingredients in our food – that we make fresh and from scratch daily. We sell local NA beverages. Our beer uses local malt. We showcase different local artists on our walls each month. We host live local music 3-4 days/week. We host local charity events and fundraisers. We donate to silent auctions. This list goes on.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

Work ethic is huge. I had opened other restaurants before – in the corporate world and as a restaurant consultant. I worked 16 hour days several days in a row and sometimes weeks.

Presence is important – nobody will run your business like you do. Now that my business is established and I have the right people in place, I am able to leave for days or weeks at a time if I need to (and I love to travel) – while still working remotely. But I still come in frequently and often.

Experience is really important. I’ve opened restaurants for people without experience and I’ve seen people open restaurants or breweries or brewpubs without experience. The service industry is a different animal and people that haven’t worked in the industry don’t realize that. It’s a big machine and it needs to be well-oiled.

I know this is #4, but a business with as many people as I have (~30), you need to take care of your team. Team is number one. I give them a lot of autonomy, higher pay, flexible schedules, health insurance, and quality of life. People that are happy to come to work make the environment better and pass that on to the guests. The guest sees our team happy and enjoying their jobs, they want to come back. It’s a sacrifice to my bottom line, but I retain team members and there’s a waiting list to get a job at Hopkins.

Thinking about it, #5 is so important – Communication. It is the key to consistency.

What would you advise – going all in on your strengths or investing on areas where you aren’t as strong to be more well-rounded?

Owning a business requires “wearing many hats”.

Some people go into business for something they’re passionate about but end up losing the passion because it becomes work, or they don’t get to do those passions anymore because they’re too busy running the business and not doing the passion part.

I think it’s important to go into your business focusing on your own strengths and hiring others that have other strengths to help your business thrive. I worked a little bit in every position in my business when we opened, just to keep things dialed in and train my team the way I wanted them trained; it also keeps things consistent.

When I have team members that show strength and desire to lead a team, I train them and guide them until I am able to give them full responsibility; then I am always available to them as support.

I went from being the head brewer, head chef, bar team leader, to social media manager and accountant. I’ve worked all aspects of my businesses and I can jump into any role that I need to. I now have a head brewer that has his own team, I have a chef that has his own team, I have a bar team leader that was her own team, and I have a general manager that oversees everything. I connect with my leadership team regularly and we have consistent communication.

My job now is something I’d never thought I’d be doing – social media and accounting. I think they are two really important areas as an owner to manage. I’ve had to learn a lot from others about social media and I’ve learned to love it. I’m able to speak about my business in my own voice and my own photography – another skill and hobby I’ve had to learn. Accounting just came with managing businesses, but it’s important for the owner to have control of their finances – I do have an accountant and bookkeeper that are separate businesses that help me with the more complicated things I don’t have time for.

I miss brewing and cooking, but I have great people in place that love their jobs and are passionate about what they do, so I’m able to enjoy excellent food and beer made by my team at my business. Now I’m able to step away from my business any time (I’m writing this from Tokyo).

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.hopkinsbrewingcompany.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hopkinsbrewingco/