Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Adam Weedy. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Adam, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?
British comedians Peter Cook and Dudley Moore were getting “big” in England and they start using a recording studio to bs with each other without the restraints of mainstream media. They take on alter ego’s called Derek and Clive…creating a backstory for themselves as toilet cleaners at the British Trade Centre.
They use stream of consciousness to attack topics, and don’t stop until one of them makes the other laugh. Basically, it’s a way to blow off steam. You can hear them drinking…obviously getting wasted. The tapes aren’t meant to be released, but I get a bootleg copy that’s floating around Japan, where I’m teaching English at the time. It’s so vulgar that you can’t believe Dudley Moore’s associated with it.
Fast forward a couple of years, and I’m riding around in a car with a buddy of mine on a hungover Sunday. The two of us cook up an idea to start a website that reviews the bars in Austin. He’s never heard of Derek and Clive, but that’s how I envision it…as two guys saying what they thought, while being outrageous. He goes his way and I go mine, and as fate would have it: I forget about the idea for 15 years.
One night, around 2012, I run into this guy who’s drinking by himself, and we start talking. As the night wears on, we hit it off and become drinking buddies. One night, he goes: “You should start a website reviewing the bars around town.” I didn’t say anything at the time, but it jogs the idea. He moves away, and I start hanging out at a bar called The Dog & Duck on Guadalupe St.
One Saturday, I’m walking to The Dog & Duck and I start writing a review of it. When I get there, a regular says: “Hey why don’t you come outside and watch the game with me.” I didn’t know him well, but I agree and after talking awhile, I build up the courage to show him my review. While he’s reading it, he starts to laugh. As he’s laughing, he starts getting louder and louder, which makes me self-conscious. Finally he goes: “What are you going to do with this?” I’m say: “Well, I’d like to put it online but I don’t know how.” He goes: “What do you do?” I go: “I sell computers.” Then he goes: “I design websites and I’ll do it for free.”
My last name is Weedy, so I decide to call the website “Weedy Bars.” Sadly the Dog & Duck closes. When they do, the local ABC affiliate KVUE, comes to cover the closing. I’m sitting at the bar with a drinking buddy and I hear him say under this breath: “Man, they ought to be interviewing you.” I go up to the news anchor and get her to read one of my reviews. She starts laughing, and puts the website on TV, which helps drive traffic to the site. WeedyBars.com gets 10,000 views within the first 90 days, but I still have no idea how to monetize it: This is the start of Weedy Bars.
Adam, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
My brother once described my website this way: “It’s basically The Straight Dope, but for bars.” I came by it quite honestly. I started stealing sips of wine from my grandmother’s house in Magnolia, Mississippi, and after a solid decade of drinking, moved to Austin and started looking for bars.
In terms of your question about it’s core value, the website provides an inside track to the bar scene. It’s where the locals go, and since the majority of bars use word of mouth, it shortens the amount of time it takes to discover great bars. I also include other cities. So let’s say you go on a trip to Minneapolis, and you want to find an authentic place to drink with locals…you can use WeedyBars.com as a guide.
In terms of your question about what sets it apart: The website guides you to the bars without being “sponsored” by the bars themselves, so you get an honest write-up of places that you can’t get unless you’re already “in the know.” I don’t waste time writing negative reviews, so the reader has immediate access to cherry-picked bars…the likes of who Anthony Bourdain and Guy Fieri have visited.
Can you share one of your favorite marketing or sales stories?
Sure. I take a sabbatical from a fortune 50 company where I’m working, and use the time to build Weedy Bars. A guy approaches me who I know from around Austin…I’m really hungover and I don’t feel like talking. He goes: “What are you doing for money while you’re doing Weedy Bars?” I start telling him about my severance package and he cuts me off.
He goes: “You should start driving for Uber. That way, when people get in your car, you can tell them about your website.” So I start driving, and I have a pretty high rating (a lot of people don’t know that Uber drivers are rated). At first, I blab about my website without qualifying my riders, and my rating starts to go down almost immediately.
Business tip A: People don’t like being “sold to” without being qualified, this has to do with respect. I give 5,000 plus trips and I condense my “qualifying question” to the following: “So are you guys planning to hit 6th street?” Now I know 3 things: 1) Are they drinkers, 2) Are they visiting and 3) Whether or not their schedule permits “play time.”
Business tip B: Practice makes perfect. After thousands of trips, riders literally handed me their phone to type in the website address for them.
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
To continue my Uber story….
One day, a UT student gets in the backseat. Maybe she’s 20 years old. She goes: “You know how I would promote your website?” Sometimes you get a feeling that someone’s smart by the way they put things. At the time, Instagram’s relatively new. She goes: “You should use Instagram.” I go: “Why would I do that?”
She says: “Well, you take a picture of a bar and you post it. People like your picture and they see your name, and that way you get your name out there.” She also says something about location…but it doesn’t register at the time.
I download Instagram, and start taking pictures. I notice I can put in the location of the photo, so I put in “Austin Texas.” One day I’m sitting in the car, and I think: “I wonder if I can search by location?” I hit the magnifier glass and type in: “Austin-Bergstrom Airport.”
Sure enough, all these pics of people taking selfies at the airport pop up. Even better, the pics are organized by how recently they’re taken. I start liking these pics and every time I like a pic, a little heart pops up in their phone and the message “liked by Weedy Bars” is sent. The problem is…I don’t know if they’re arriving in Austin, leaving Austin, ect. It works, but sometimes I get responses like: “Man, I wish I knew about your website, I’m just finishing my trip, ect.”
Then I decide to drill down. I start searching downtown Hotels…specifically looking for pics taken in the Hotel bar. Now I’m targeting people with the power to travel, the money to buy alcohol and the “time to play.”
Business tip: Take advice….listen to it and evaluate it.
Contact Info:
- Website: WeedyBars.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/weedybars/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WeedyBars/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-weedy/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/weedybars
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJK692ETW13FzorfBN5U64g