We recently connected with Dominique Van Ausdall and have shared our conversation below.

Dominique, appreciate you joining us today. Almost all entrepreneurs have had to decide whether to start now or later? There are always pros and cons for waiting and so we’d love to hear what you think about your decision in retrospect. If you could go back in time, would you have started your business sooner, later or at the exact time you started?

I know for a fact that other breweries like us were doing unreal numbers out the gate before 2020. Unfortunately we missed that wave. If we opened our brick & mortar in 2019 or sooner things would be much different. We’ve had an uphill battle from the start.

We aren’t sure yet, but maybe the time we opened helped us in the long run as we have had to figure things out on the fly with minimal resources and continue to do so without having to sacrifice the quality of our product.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

After leaving what I thought would be my lifelong career as a Math Teacher in 2013, I set off to find a new passion.

Craft beer was right in front of my face and the industry was young and slowly gaining traction in DFW. I fell in love and wanted to be apart of it. I volunteered to get in the industry since I didn’t have relevant experience.

In 2014, I volunteered for Firewheel Brewing & Community Beer. I was able to see two very different brewery journeys and learn a lot from each.

After many months I was finally given an opportunity. A beer delivery driver, easily one of the hardest jobs in the industry. Shortly became a sale rep shortly after and helped build a new craft beer distributor in DFW that has distributed a lot of the local brands around DFW. After many years of watching brands thrive and grow and some die and fail, I thought it was time to pull the trigger and join the brewery scene.

Knowing the tools for success we were able to assemble an awesome team at False Idol and hit the ground running thanks to our past experiences.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

From the beginning of filing our LLC we knew there was one important thing that we had seen so many businesses sleep on for years. Social Media.

We set up all of our pages and instantly began to try to market our brand, False Idol.

One key thing is to be consistent. If you post once a week, once a day, once a month. Stick to it. For something with open hours, you should probably post every day you are open, at least.

You get what you pay for. If you aren’t so great at photography or graphic design you can pay for it or pay for education and equipment.

We started blasting out our brand logos, tap handle designs, merchandise and the journey of our brewery. We had giveaways for glassware, shirts, hats, stickers, and baby onesies.

We started grabbing the attention of people and building a buzz. There was one thing missing. The Beer.

When we finally were able to have product in market, the followers increased and engagement grew.

It has continued to do so and we are constantly having to adjust to the next new trend of social media.

We have had to step up our beer name themes, art, marketing and content every day to continue the momentum as well as increasing our distribution network for beer.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

3 Things:

1. Product – Our brewer has brewed award winning and high quality beer consistently since day 1. We make the best New England IPAs and Imperial Stouts in our region and our Lagers can hold their own with anybody. If our beer was not up to par, we would not be where we are.

2. Branding/Marketing – Having a following before our product even hit market really helped us hit the ground running. The branding has really caught on to most people, even non beer drinkers. We designed our main logo to be universal and not just be another beer themed logo. We continue to focus and maintain our branding and marketing each day.

3. Customer Service/Experience – Customer service has been a major factor for our taproom. Our bartenders are the best out there and keep the customers coming back. We want to create an enjoyable experience when you are at the Wolf Den.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.falseidolbrew.com
• Instagram: @FalseIdolBrewing
• Facebook: TheFalseIdolBrewing
• Twitter: @FalseIdolBrew
• Other: TikTok – @FalseIdolBrewing

Image Credits
Lacey O’Leary Nathan Keomanila (@NathanielKeomanila)