Chris Chapanar, aka Whiskey Noobs, is an engineer by day but a busy spirit guide by night. He launched his side hustle early on in his career after developing a love for whiskey and a desire to learn as much about it as possible.

He poured that knowledge into a podcast, Whiskey Noobs, before branching out into short-form video content across Instagram and TikTok. Here’s his story...

Balancing the Spirit Guide Life with an Engineering Career
How does a busy engineer make time for a spirit guide side hustle? It’s safe to say that the man behind Whiskey Noobs, Chris Chapanar, is a busy guy.

He began his spirit guide life with a podcast to put his research into an easily digestible format for people who want to learn all there is to know about whiskey.

But seeing short-form content on TikTok take off, he spotted an opportunity to reach more people. A couple of hundred thousand followers later, Chris has cracked the code with his whiskey content and has since begun working on a new podcast, Perfect Pairings, which combines his love of cigars and whiskey.

In this episode, we hear how he got started, why he moved into video content, the impact on his personal life, and how he manages to balance it all.

Chris also talks about the responsibility he feels when giving reviews and his method for keeping them balanced and positive.

In This Episode:
· Why Chris decided to start a whiskey podcast
· Why Chris found his niche with “noob” content
· The challenges of being a whiskey guide in Ohio
· Why Chris chose the podcast format
· What made Chris move into short-form video content
· The most popular (and impossible) question Chris gets asked
· Why Chris feels a responsibility when it comes to reviews
· The challenges of giving negative reviews
· Most rewarding moments
· What made Chris think he could crack the code
· The impact on personal life
· How Chris balances his day job with content creation as a side hustle
· Why Chris hit pause on his podcast
· What it’s like working with smaller brands
· Chris’ new podcast ‘Perfect Pairings’
· Finding a process for shooting videos
· The one person Chris would like to sip whiskey with

Resources:
· Follow Chris on Instagram
· Follow Perfect Pairings on Instagram
· Follow Whiskey Noobs on TikTok

This podcast is brought to you by LoveScotch.com and produced by our friends at Content10x.com.

Sippers, we step away from the world of spirits in this episode to speak with Lucia Palm, creator of the lucialoveswine brand across TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube.

We hear how Lucia moved from culinary school to a career in the restaurant business as a trained sommelier, to create content for fellow wine lovers.

From Certified Wine Pro to Content Creator

With a love of cooking and the perfect wine combos, Lucia found her niche during the pandemic with social media. She started posting images, moved to videos, and quickly became the face of a wine education brand that helps people learn about, appreciate and pick the best wine.

While she may be a trained sommelier, Lucia focuses largely on inexpensive wine and shares how to find the best bottles at your local Trader Joe’s or Costco.

In this episode, we hear how it all began, what the past three years have been like working on her brand, and her approach to creating brilliant wine content that her fans love. Lucia also takes us through the biggest challenges, the most rewarding parts of the job, fan interactions, and her work with brands.

In This Episode:
· How Lucia’s love of cooking and wine began
· Lucia’s early career in restaurants and how she pivoted to content
· What Lucia’s early content consisted of
· How she realized the wine niche was a real business
· Why Lucia focuses on inexpensive wine
· Why Lucia favors longer captions with social posts
· The challenges of public content creation
· The most rewarding part of being a wine guide
· Common questions and comments she gets
· Interacting with fans
· How her content and brand deals have changed over the past three years
· Family opinions of her career
· How Lucia manages different platforms and her plans for YouTube
· The biggest challenge of her career
· Who Lucia would love to sip wine with

Resources:
· Follow Lucia on Instagram
· Follow Lucia on TikTok
· Follow her YouTube channel
· Ruth Reichl’s books

This podcast is brought to you by LoveScotch.com and produced by our friends at Content10x.com.

Whiskey connoisseurs, this one’s for you! Whiskey enthusiasts were the original pioneers of the spirit guide industry, and the community is still thriving and learning from content creators and educators like Ryan Mills, aka ThatOneDudeRyan. He joins The Spirit Guides for a deep dive into his passion-turned-business in whiskey content creation.

Finding Success from a Passion Project

Tequila Jay sits down with ThatOneDudeRyan to find out how his short-form content is making waves in the whiskey community. The father of two has made all the right moves in the whiskey world and now has a merch line, brand sponsors, single barrel programs, and an e-commerce store for spirits. Despite all this, Ryan is not ready to quit his day job as a sales manager and has no plans to anytime soon.

In this episode, we talk about how Ryan stumbled upon this business niche, starting with content on Instagram before moving to TikTok to create short-form content for today’s waning attention spans. As more and more people came to him with questions about whiskey, he realized this was more than just a hobby.

With his background in sales and educating people, Ryan found his sweet spot in the industry and continues to make engaging and educational content for fellow whiskey enthusiasts. He shares his thoughts on operating in a competitive niche, the most rewarding aspects of being a spirit guide, and working with brands (both the good and the bad). We also hear about his approach to content consistency and why his Melin cap and cheeky T-shirts are now a brand signature.

In This Episode:

· How Ryan became interested in creating whiskey content

· When Ryan realized that this could be more than just a hobby

· Why Ryan isn’t ready to quit his day job

· How Ryan approached working in a competitive niche

· How Ryan found his signature style

· The most rewarding parts of being a spirit guide

· Ryan’s approach to working with brands

Follow Ryan:

· Follow Ryan on X

· Follow Ryan on Instagram

· Follow Ryan on TikTok

· Subscribe to ThatOneDudeRyan on YouTube

· ThatOneDudeRyan.com

This podcast is brought to you by LoveScotch.com and produced by our friends at Content10x.com.