We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Zach Myers a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Zach thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Risk taking is something we’re really interested in and we’d love to hear the story of a risk you’ve taken.
I graduated college with aspirations of breaking into the sports industry. I always saw myself in some front office of a major league team. During my time at York College in York, PA, I took an internship in South Carolina that introduced me to my now wife, Allie. She was from Memphis, TN, pursing the same career which is how we landed, luckily, at that same internship in Hilton Head, SC. We got paired together to while working that week long golf tournament and I’m pretty sure I told her that I was going to marry her…I guess you could say that was the first of many risks. She may have thought I was crazy at the time, but her personality can light up an entire room and I knew even after just one week that she was the one. Allie was a year ahead of me in school and after she graduated, she recieved a job offer with a successful minor league hockey team in Charleston, SC. I quickly opened a Southwest credit card to rack up promo points while flying to see her before ultimately moving to Charleston myself, the following year. I had a pretty good connection with the hockey team through her which helped me get a job there too. We worked together for several years before she left the sports industry. Meanwhile, I was able to grow from Entry Level Account Executive to Director of Ticket Sales within the organization. Needless to say, I convinced her I wasn’t so crazy after all and we were married in May of 2019.
Then covid hit and I was laid off. In all my new found free time I came up with an idea! I researched this crazy concept and in the middle of a pandemic, decided to start Tap Truck Charleston. I took a risk, and a very big one at that. I knew sporting events were at a dead standstill, making it the ideal time to follow a lifelong dream I had to start a business. It took a lot of courage and faith to not return to what i knew post-covid. I still remember when I was invited back to the office for work and telling my boss I wouldn’t be returning. That’s when I knew we were really going to start this business and do whatever it took to make it work. There were no guarantees or promises of success which makes it arguably one of the biggest risks I’ve ever taken.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
Tap Truck Charleston is a mobile bartending service for wedding and other private events. We restored two vintage, panel delivery trucks trucks from 1959 and 1962, adding full beer systems and five free-flowing taps to each. Not only do we pull up in style, but we double as one of the most important pieces of a party, the bar! We can serve beer, wine, signature cocktails and other drinks, all from the side of our trucks. At our core, we are customer service driven company and strive to provide a memorable experience for all of our guests at any given event. For those who don’t know what a Tap Truck is, we restored vintage panel delivery trucks trucks from 1959 and 1962 to have a full beer system. Not only do we pull up in style, we double as one of the most important pieces of a party, the bar!
We are so lucky to serve in one of the world’s premier wedding destinations, Charleston, SC. We’ve also done many birthday parties and public community events, like Fourth of July celebrations.
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
My wife, Allie, runs all of our social media and truly does an amazing job! One of the biggest things we try to remember is to just be ourselves everytime we get in front of the camera. We are two real people behind all the the nice truck content. When you run a company you want to give your audience someone to connect with and relate to. Yes, we have plenty of truck pictures and videos on instagram, but some of our best engagement comes from our most spontaneous content, like going live on Instagram just before a wedding expo or at an event, inviting followers to come visit us. My advice for anyone trying to build a brand in today’s digital world is to be authentically yourself on social media.
Our ‘Tapped In’ newsletter is another great way we conect with our followers. Each month, Allie provides a cocktail recipe, congratulates new couples who join our TTC ‘Family, shares our local drink ‘pick of the month’ and other micelaneous news items. This allows us to share directly with our customers but also gives us an opportunity to engage with external brands through the local shoutouts. She then ties that back to our social media by retroactively posting the drink pick of the previous month on Instagram and Facebook with a link encouraging followers to sign up for the newsletter. The idea is that by being apart of our newletter subscribers they become apart of a more exclusive group – “the first to know what next months pick is.” My advice for anyone trying to build a brand in today’s digital world is to be authentically yourself on social media.
Any advice for managing a team?
Be a leader. Now, I didn’t wake up one morning and realize that I was a leader. Throughout my career, there were others who saw leadership potential in me and took the time to develop that capability. This gave me the passion, drive, and vision to start my own businesses and identify people who looked to me for direction, inspiration, and opportunity. Though passion will guide you, it’s important to remember to be someone who does versus someone who tells. Yes, having supervisory responsibilities sometimes requires you to delegate, but there’s a huge difference between someone who orders and someone who is on the front lines showing the way. Being a manager is extremely difficult because you get pressure from every direction, up and down. Remember to stay calm under pressure, walk the walk, and be resilient.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.
taptruckcharleston.com - Instagram: https://www.
instagram.com/ taptruckcharleston/?hl=en - Facebook: https://www.
facebook.com/ TapTruckCharleston/ - Tik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@
taptruckcharleston_
Image Credits
Charles Merry Photography