We were lucky to catch up with Kevin Wilkerson recently and have shared our conversation below.

Kevin, appreciate you joining us today. Everyone has crazy stuff happen to them, but often small business owners and creatives, artists and others who are doing something off the beaten path are often hit with things (positive or negative) that are so out there, so unpredictable and unexpected. Can you share a crazy story from your journey?

The craziest story happened before PubClub.com was even created. In fact, it’s a big reason why it was created in the first place.

I was in Amsterdam with a friend who knew the city so well I called him Mr. Amsterdam. We went in and out of so many pubs, cafes and bars on a Friday and Saturday night that it was as much of a blur as the trams. On Sunday afternoon, all of the places that had been so busy earlier on the weekend were empty. Looking for any place with activity, at about 6 o’clock we went into a spot called Cafe Luxembourg, which is an after-work locals hangout. Not expecting much, we walked in and I could tell right away we had just missed a huge social scene. Staffers were sweeping up broken glass, putting chairs back in place and wiping down the bar. When we asked a bartender about it she said, “oh yes, every Sunday until 5, the biggest party in Amsterdam is here.”

“Dang!,’ we said to each other in frustration. “Wish we had known about this earlier.”

Another time, I was in Toronto looking for a lively after-work place to have a couple of beers and walked into a long, narrow bar that was packed. I got a beer and chatted with the friendly Canadians there but as soon as I ordered a second beer, everyone left, almost as if a big “woosh” had swept them out the door. As I stood there wondering what just happened, the people I had been talking to came back in to tell me they were going to another bar. Naturally, I went with them and found out that every Tuesday they started out at the first bar, went to a second one and then onto a third. It was their routine. So I asked where they went on the other days of the week and soon I had the knowledge of the locals.

The idea of creating some type of travel guide focused on nightlife and the locals’ scene had been floating around in my head for some time. The original idea was for a video series but hiring a production crew, plus post-production costs and distribution challenges were factors that made it financially unfeasible. Now keep in mind this was back in the early 2000s. There was no YouTube or social media and the internet and websites were in their infancy. In fact, I spent a considerable amount of time explaining websites to people when telling them about PubClub.com.

So those two crazy stories took my vision from idea to reality. I moved forward and launched PubClub.com with the idea to show people in words, pictures and videos not just the best bars in cities around the world but when to be in them. I think I have done quite well in those areas.

Kevin, 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?

When I started PubClub.com, I was working as an independent PR contractor. My main client was the PPG IndyCar World Series and it had me traveling all across the USA and into Canada. It was a job I really enjoyed, too, working with media in various cities, race promoters, race car drivers and team PR reps. But I missed writing articles. I began my career as a newspaper sports journalist and, well, writers like to write the same way musicians like to play music. So the blog has provided me with an outlet to utilize my writing skills.

I do sometimes feel that good writing is a lost art. I read several articles on blogs and news/sports websites that violate the basic principals that I was long taught: don’t end sentences with prepositions, companies and sports teams are “its” not “theys” and use more than and less than rather than over and under. What sets me apart from others? I like to think a lot of it is my writing ability and adhering to basic rules.

While PubClub,.com is my own business and I spend 30+ hours a week on it creating new content and refreshing articles with up-to-date information, I also have clients in writing and PR. I am the Content Editor and Lead Writer for the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach (program, fan guide, PA announcements and race weekend website stories), which is the second-biggest NTT INDYCAR SERIES race next to the Indy 500 and am the Press Officer for the Congressional Cup regatta, which is one of the world’s oldest and most prestigious sailboat races.

I kind of stumbled into PR. After working for the Savannah News-Press and winning an AP award for investigative journalism, I made a bold career decision and left to pursue opportunities in Los Angeles. I scored a job at a PR agency and after a few months learning the trade there, moved to a mid-sized agency. It had a lot of automotive clients and because of my sportswriting background, I was put on the motorsports teams for Nissan and Yokohama. A few years later, I was hired to lead a new advance PR program for the PPG IndyCar World Series (which was eventually folded into the current series). Because a lot of that PR work involved juggling drivers’ schedules, making sure the correct sponsors were promoted at certain races and several other factors that had me thinking on my feet, I became prolific at not just solving problems but anticipating them before they happened.

I am available for additional writing and PR projects and bring these and other skills to clients.

I am very proud of several accomplishments, among them the AP award, getting a major feature on a Nissan race car driver in Sports Illustrated, getting a PR client a spot in the the Toyota Pro/Celebrity race at the Long Beach Grand Prix, scoring hundreds of hits for the IndyCar series in various media outlets (women in racing, letting the media wave the flags in the starter stand and arranging driver media tours stand out the most) and launching my own business, PubClub.com. which means I found a way to make money while traveling and drinking beer!

Regarding myself personally, I am from Knoxville, TN, hold a degree in Journalism from the University of Alabama and currently reside in San Diego. I’m a bit of a self-confessed beach bum in my spare time and enjoy Jimmy Buffett music. I am also very passionate about the University of Alabama sports teams.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

There is, yes, the goal of being successful.

It is a continual process and takes a lot of focus, determination and effort. You can’t become complacent. If you do, then you can be left in the dust. In PR, the method of getting in touch with media to pitch a story has shifted from phone calls because it’s so difficult to reach reporters that way, from e-mails to contacting them on social media. Of course, nothing is more effective than establishing and maintaining relationships; that’s when a phone call or text can lead to stories.

The landscape for content websites – now mostly called blogs – such as mine is shifting as often as the tectonic plates in California. Social media platforms are popping up like toast, thousands of bloggers and so-called influencers are creating more and more competition and if you don’t continue to evolve you you’ll get crushed. Sometimes, since I largely work alone on the site, it’s tough to get motivated day after day. But I know if I don’t stick with it, then I won’t be successful.

Whenever I need a little push to keep going, I turn to quotes from football coaches. Maybe it’s because of my sportswriting background, but coaches seem to know the right things to say because they have to constantly motivate their players. Two of my favorites are from Nick Saban, the most successful coach in college football history. They are: “mediocre people hate high achievers, and high achievers hate mediocre people ” and “there are two pains in life: the pain of discipline and the pain of disappointment. If you can handle the pain of discipline, you’ll never have to deal with the pain of disappointment.”

Those quotes always inspire me and help me stay on my goal of being successful.

Any advice for managing a team?

The advice I have for managing a team and maintaining high morale is to treat the team just as that – a team. Each person has a job and if they do it to the best of their ability then it combines to make the whole team successful.

Lead by example. Good employees want to learn and if you show them how to do something by doing it yourself, they will follow and respect you.

Treat your team the way you want to be treated. That is to be fair, consistent, offer constructive criticism – “it’s better if you do it this way,” for example – and provide encouragement when someone does something good. That last part is a great motivating tool because it inspires people; it is human nature to respond better to positive words and actions than negative ones.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.pubclub.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pubclub/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pubclubber
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-wilkerson-3711555/
• Twitter: @barblogger
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@PubClub
• Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@pubclub.com
  PubClub LIVE YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@PubClublive