We recently connected with Kevin Hamilton and have shared our conversation below.
Kevin, we’re thrilled to have you sharing your thoughts and lessons with our community. So, for folks who are at a stage in their life or career where they are trying to be more resilient, can you share where you get your resilience from?
My resilience in opening and operating businesses comes from a place that may seem odd but I would have to say skateboarding. It’s a sport where there is no coach, no structure and no rules. To progress, you have to learn to be self-sufficient. You may try a trick 1,000 times and it often hurts when you don’t make it. You have to rely on your own will and desire to learn the trick and each failure just brings you that much closer to learning the right way.
When you start a business there are similarities to learning a new trick. Certainly there are laws and regulations but a lot of it is the willingness to try, to learn and sometimes, to fail. There’s really no guidebook and you often find yourself on an “island” with no one directing you towards the right decision. As a kid, skateboarding taught me this simple rule that if you want to learn something, you just need to absorb all of the relevant information you can and ultimately, just try to do it and don’t get discouraged if it doesn’t work the first time (or even the 10th time).
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
Early in my professional life I was on a traditional track – I went to college, then grad school and had what you might call a traditional career. This was all great and I’m glad that I have that knowledge base, particularly an MBA. As I got older however, I realized that I was rarely “creating” something, I was just working. This made it hard for me to want to be better and personally, I was not fulfilled. I had an opportunity to sell my previous business and I made the decision to do exactly what I wanted to do and work with people that I wanted to work with. Enter, the biergarten.
From the first time I stepped foot in a biergarten I knew it was something I wanted to create. I loved the idea of making beer and running a restaurant but I’m most interested in creating an overall experience for guests. In the restaurant business it’s not enough to be good at any one thing – a great burger or the best beer for example, is not enough. My focus is on making every part of the Canyon Club Brewery experience special. The music needs to be appropriate, the seating is comfortable, the food and drinks are great, the service is second-to-none and most of all, it’s a space and experience that you want to come back to. We opened the first Canyon Club in Moraga, CA in 2019 and we’re now getting ready to open the second location in Danville, CA in early 2025. I must admit, I much prefer the chaos and creativity of opening a brewery as opposed to the day-to-day operation. In truth, I have great staff that are much better at that than I am. My ability is to create these spaces where they didn’t exist, to have the vision of what the end result will be when you’re staring at a blank canvas. I also enjoy waking up not fully knowing where the day or your work will take you.
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?
Personally, I had a pretty tough upbringing but I now feel like that experience trained me to be self-sufficient and figure things out on my own. I’m not suggesting that you don’t rely on anyone else, there’s great value in having a team of people especially when they possess skills that you haven’t developed yet. In truth, I’m not a great delegator because of this and that’s something I need to improve. I’ve also always been comfortable with risk, not in a way where I would do something that I wasn’t relatively sure would work out but at the same time, I understood that it’s OK if it doesn’t. I would prefer to try and fail than not try at all.
In terms of knowledge, I was fortunate enough to go to grad school and earn an MBA. I completely understand that college is not a solution for everything or everyone but the value of an MBA is that you learn a little about a lot. You may take a marketing class followed by an accounting class followed by a class in business law. Whether or not you gain this knowledge from college or other means, it’s a great asset to at least be able to understand the basics about all aspects related to owning a business.
Who has been most helpful in helping you overcome challenges or build and develop the essential skills, qualities or knowledge you needed to be successful?
I feel very fortunate to be part of the craft beer industry. It’s an industry where we don’t have safe guarded secrets and instead, approach everyone in the industry as peers and supporters. There isn’t one person in particular but rather a small community of us that are all doing the same thing and as opposed to thinking of each other as competitors, we see the value in sharing information. I’ve had numerous meals with other brewery owners simply to learn about what they’re doing that’s working and in turn, I’m happy to share what we’re doing. We go as far as sharing revenue and production numbers to gain context for our operations. In many industries it seems like people generally hold their operational knowledge close to the vest. If you can find a group of like-minded owners that understand the value of having a mastermind group it’s invaluable for overcoming challenges.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.canyonclub.works
- Instagram: @canyonclubbrewery or @canyonclubdanville
- Facebook: Canyon Club Brewery
