We recently connected with Brian Hay and have shared our conversation below.

Brian, appreciate you joining us today. To kick things off, we’d love to hear about things you or your brand do that diverge from the industry standard.

Consumers today are looking for information to support value based decisions. In the Culinary and beverage world, people wish to make informed decisions but do not want to get bogged down with irrelevant details.

My aim with all of my writing is to keep my information simple for consumers to use to make decisions. As a certified chef and sommelier, I have a great deal of knowledge on production, growing areas, etc. What the consumer wishes to know comes down to:

does it taste good, and
is it worth the price.

At ArtofthePair.com, my goal is to provide relevant information that everyone can use to make informed decisions.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I consider myself a lifelong learner related to food and beverages. It started in College and has grown over a 30+ year career. I’ve been a Culinary instructor and Director of multiple schools around the country teaching all aspects of food production and safety for the restaurant industry. During that time, I was blessed to be certified as a sommelier in two different Guilds which taught me a great deal about beverages. More importantly, it taught me about service and serving others.

My business is partially consulting for restaurants. However, I perform small catering parties and educational classes which I find the most fun. Having discussions with people about food and beverages is exceptionally fulfilling for me. I love sharing my passion. I’m willing to travel to do presentations anywhere and greatly enjoy teaching others.

What sets me apart from others is being able to understand what people wish to learn and fulfilling that need. I’m able to quickly have a good rapport with a group and then be able to have great discussions about a particular subject/topic. For example, on my site, you can see that I have a passion for tea. This comes from one fundamental aspect that I believe in – On a Daily basis, we have the ability to eat and drink well for a reasonable price. I want to teach people that loose tea is affordable, exceptionally high quality and much cheaper to make at home instead of purchasing out.

What am I most Proud of? Being a part of this great industry that has mentored me and allowed me to grow daily and help others.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

Social media is exceptionally hard to crack in to. I’ve learned the hard way in several areas related to my website and postings as I maintain all of this myself. If you think about it, each platform (Instagram, Facebook, Tiktok, YouTube, etc.) has it’s own merits and procedures that you need to have in place to maximize followers.

My suggestions are the following:

Develop your business plan and marketing plan with social media in mind. You have to know who your clientele is and the best way to reach them using each platform.

Research the cost versus benefit of each platform related to your postings and desired presence, along with your website development. You can pay someone to do all of this for you but are you willing to give up control in these areas. For example, when you wish to post and you do it yourself, you are in control. But this takes time so are you available to get this done with everything else.

Find people you can trust who will be honest with you. When I started out, I had some people critique areas to give me feedback. I still do to this day have people that check every post with a fine comb.

Lastly, have a schedule for posting and keep at it. Don’t miss it. I post twice a week and do everything to maintain these dates and times. Even when I’m traveling, I set everything up to be able post while I’m gone. Consistency brings followers.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

For myself, what has helped and helping with my reputation are the following:

Consistency of posting and information given
I’ve worked hard on templates so my information and site formatting is consistent. I want people to be able to gain access to my information quickly and I attempt to respond in 24 hours max.

Being honest to your clientele
I want my clientele to have the best time possible and get the most value (in class, and consulting). I’m always honest about what I will provide and not provide in writing so its clear.

Giving back whenever possible
I support a number of culinary events around the country, along with beverage writing seminars. I’m not paid for these and that’s great actually. It’s about helping others since so many people over the years have helped me.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.artofthepair.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/artofthepair/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/artofthepair/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brian-hay-bb62819/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2w3sy6ETsd4aaas0EEWOrw

Image Credits
all my photos so the credit is linked to my site