We recently connected with John Macatangay and have shared our conversation below.
John, appreciate you joining us today. Often the greatest growth and the biggest wins come right after a defeat. Other times the failure serves as a lesson that’s helpful later in your journey. We’d appreciate if you could open up about a time you’ve failed
There is not one story of failure that comes to mind but multiple stories of failure. Failure early in life (or any part of life, depending on the person) was difficult to handle because I held too much value in what others thought of me. But learning to value your own thoughts and realizing that no one is really thinking about you (they are too wrapped up in their own lives) became a powerful tool for failing. I was able to take risks, learn lessons, and grow with each and every failure. Overtime, if used as a tool, failure can turn micro losses into macro wins.
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?
My name is John Macatangay, and I was born and raised in Staten Island, New York, then attended the University of Scranton. I graduated after my 4.5th year after the fall semester of 2001. I had plans to move back to New York, but after 9/11, I decided to follow my family down to Sunny, South Florida. From 2002 to 2007, I worked various jobs. I spent time bartending, working retail, and with Enterprise Car Rental before I settled into a position with State Farm. I spent four years at State Farm as an insurance agent, but the entire time, my father was in my ear about owning a business, so in 2011, I went out on my own and opened a GreatFlorida Insurance Franchise.
Around the same time, my wife got pregnant with our first child. That changed my perspective on mortality, so I started a fitness and health journey geared toward living as long as possible for my daughter. How does this all tie into Hopportunities? In 2018 I ran a 200-mile-ish relay race from Long Beach, CA, to San Diego, CA (a city known for small independent craft beer.) Right outside our hotel in San Diego was a small craft beer bar with a wall of taps with some game boyish screens above them ( for you young folks reading Google Original Nintendo Game Boy), but the strange part was there was no bar. Everyone was waving this orange wristband on the screens and pouring their beer.
This was when the idea of Hopportunities was born. I loved the idea of being able to try as little and as much as you wanted and being charged accordingly. On top of that, every family outing of mine involved me dragging the family to a new brewery wherever we were; I thought we could bring these fantastic local craft beers to one place. So I took a page from the German beer halls that housed beer drinkers, families, business people, etc., and created a space for everyone to come and enjoy some beer, bites, entertainment, and comradely.
I am most proud of the diversity of the community we built and opening up the palates of those who “don’t drink beer.” Of course, we have other items such as wine, cider, hard seltzer, kombucha, and wine-based cocktails that we serve, but the craft beer industry is so innovative that they have created beer that tastes nothing like beer. From fruited sours that mimic the flavor of your favorite childhood candy to very rich pastry stouts that are like dessert in a bottle, it is hard to find a style of beer you do not like at Hopportunities.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
We first signed the lease for Hopportunities in July 2018. Between waiting on city approvals for zoning and permits, the build-out, and staffing, we quietly opened our doors on 10/31/2019. Not knowing how to operate a self-serve beer hall, we waited till Feb 2020 to have our grand opening party. Six weeks later, we were closed due to the pandemic. Because we were a bar in Palm Beach, we were allowed to reopen in October 2020.
Resilience is a work I would describe this time. We pivoted from an on-premise location and changed our model to sell cans, growlers, and bottles all to go. We ran virtual events from Zoom trivia, music bingo, concerts, and beer school (where we did a virtual beer tasting with breweries). We found ways to keep both new and old customers engaged so that we did reopen people would come to show us support. The great thing about this is we kept a ton of what we did to pivot and are now using that as additional revenue streams.
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
We started our social media with the help of a friend, @littlemariii, on Instagram. She was amazing and professional, but when the pandemic shutdown occurred, we had to cut all costs. We were a new business that was already over budget from opening, so it was a difficult decision that had to be made, but we had to let her go. At that point, I took over social media. We were in the middle of a dark time, so I decided that anything that would make me laugh/giggle while I did it or posted it was what we would do.
Our core customers and family loved it, and they felt like it was more “me,” and some people who haven’t even met me let me know that they think they know me from our social media. I don’t really look at views or likes at this point. My gauge is when customers in or outside the bar that follows us comment on a post that makes them laugh, I know we are doing something right.
My advice is to make social media social. Make it you, make it your brand, and make it authentic as opposed to curated.
Contact Info:
- Website: findyourhoppyplace.com
- Instagram: hopportunitiesbeerhall
- Facebook: facebook.com/hopportunities
- Youtube: @hopportunititesbeerhall
Image Credits
Dangerwing Creative