Dial in something simple before getting more complex. That’s a principle I learned from brewing beer that applies to just about everything.
After years of teaching brewing online, judging competitions, and working with homebrew clubs, the pattern is always the same.
New brewers come to me with grand plans—imperial stouts loaded with coffee beans, chocolate, vanilla, and aged in bourbon barrels. Their eyes light up as they describe these elaborate concoctions.
Then I give them the advice they don’t want to hear: start with a basic stout.
Just malt, hops, yeast, and water. Nothing fancy.
The response is predictable—disappointment, sometimes even a bit of pushback. But here’s what I’ve seen over and over: complexity is a wonderful place to hide mistakes.
Take Coors Light, for example.
I’m not particularly fond of drinking it, but I respect the brewers who make it. That beer is so clean, so stripped down to its essence, that every single flaw would be exposed. There’s nowhere for off-flavors to hide, no bold ingredients to mask poor technique.
The fact that it tastes identical batch after batch, brewery after brewery, is impressive craftsmanship.
Now imagine the same brewery trying to craft a 10% alcohol imperial stout infused with coffee, chocolate, and caramel. If they made a fundamental error—say, their fermentation temperature was off, or their sanitation wasn’t perfect—those rich, bold flavors would cover it right up.
The beer might still taste “good enough,” but the foundation would be flawed.
I’ve seen this play out countless times. In competitions, I’ll taste an overly complex beer and notice something off in the foundation—maybe a fermentation issue or contamination—but it’s masked by all those bold flavors.
Meanwhile, the brewers who perfected their basic stout first had built the skills to troubleshoot problems and the confidence to experiment meaningfully.
The same principle holds in marketing.
Most campaigns begin with excessive complexity from the start—multiple messages, various channels, elaborate funnels, and sophisticated automation. When something doesn’t work, it becomes nearly impossible to diagnose the real problem.
Was it the messaging? The timing? The audience? The channel?
All that complexity creates too many variables.
Instead, start with something clean and simple. One clear message, delivered to one specific audience, through one channel you can measure effectively. Get that working first.
Understand why it works, what makes it effective, and how to reproduce those results consistently. Only then should you start layering in additional complexity.
Always brew a good stout before attempting a chocolate stout.
