Book Julie Rhodes To Speak
Straight-talk sales and marketing education for the beverage and hospitality industry. No theory dumps, no recycled corporate decks. Your audience leaves with tools they can use Monday morning.
Julie has spent 20+ years in the beverage industry, 13 of them in supplier-side sales, brand marketing, regional management, and chain sales, and since 2019 she has been the consultant small beverage brands call when they're done winging it. She teaches the way she consults: specific, practical, and allergic to jargon. Every session is customized to your audience, your event format, and your time slot.
Ways To Put Her On Your Stage
Keynotes
Opening or closing your event with energy and substance. Big-room talks that set the tone and give every attendee something to act on.
Breakout Sessions
45 to 75 minutes of focused, tactical education on sales, marketing, data, taproom, or operations. Built for note-takers.
Workshops
Two hours to a full day, with worksheets, scorecards, and real work happening in the room. Attendees leave with a finished tool, not just notes.
Private Staff Trainings
Taproom hospitality, upselling, distribution sales, and data skills, taught directly to your crew. On-site or virtual.
Virtual Sessions & Webinars
Member education for guilds and associations without the travel line item. Same energy, smaller carbon footprint.
Panels & Podcast Guesting
Moderating, panel seats, and guest spots. She hosts her own show, so she shows up prepared and quotable.
Who books Julie: national and state industry conferences, brewers guilds and trade associations, universities and business development programs, allied trade and vendor events, festivals and expos, and individual beverage and hospitality companies that want their teams trained by someone who has done the job.
Keynotes
Winning the Battle: Strategies to Propel Your Brewery Ahead
Aligning every department around one strategy so the whole brewery pulls in the same direction, from the brewhouse to the taproom to the street.
Do More With Less: How Craft Beverage Brands Win Big Without Big Budgets
Why working harder isn't the answer, and how small brands build the goals, systems, and accountability that let them outsmart the competition they can't outspend.
Where You Might Have Caught Her
A sample from the last five years: national stages, statewide conferences, and single-guild seminars, in rooms of every size.
Scrappy to Scalable: A Real-World Sales System for Distributed Beverage Brands
Two-hour hands-on workshop at the industry's biggest national stage on replacing gut-feel selling with an actual sales system.
Hospitality Hype
Building buzz for a food and beverage business without a PR budget. Co-presented with Mayter Scott of Mayter Scott Creative.
More Revenue, Less Chaos
Tactics for small brewery teams to work smarter, not harder: the six numbers to track, revenue-first marketing, and AI as a labor-saver.
Your Taproom Won't Fill Itself: How to Make Digital Marketing Do It For You
Digital marketing built for one job: getting more people through your taproom door.
The One-Person Marketing Team
How to run a whole brewery's marketing when the whole marketing department is you, with a no-nonsense tool stack included.
The Marketing Flywheel
How momentum in one part of your brewery feeds every other part, taught hands-on with a take-home worksheet.
Transforming Your Brewery Into An Ecosystem
Connecting the dots between departments so the whole business works together. Yes, she crosses borders for the right room.
Distribution Management: Beginner and Advanced Concepts
A two-part wholesale deep dive at the cider industry's national convention, plus a session on social media advertising.
Also seen at: NanoCon, Craft Beer Professionals, Pink Boots Society, Women of the Vine & Spirits, Craft Beverage Expo, Crafted For Action, Craft Women Connect, Barrel & Flow, Hemp Beverage Alliance, and brewers guild conferences in Colorado, California, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, Wyoming, Wisconsin, New Jersey, Georgia, Massachusetts, Vermont, and San Diego, plus the New York Cider Association, the Virginia Small Business Development Center, and classrooms at the University of Vermont, UC Davis, and the University of Richmond.
Thirteen Talks, Zero Filler
Every session below can run as a breakout, be expanded into a workshop, or be adapted into a keynote for your event. Tap a title for the details.
Sales & Distribution
What to STOP Doing in Distribution This Year
- What wholesale partners actually need from a supplier brand to prioritize it
- The distribution habits that waste time, damage relationships, and kill momentum
- A Stop/Start framework attendees can implement immediately
Small Wins That Add Up: The Moneyball Approach to Sales
- Real examples of incremental wins in both taproom and distribution
- A scorecard connecting weekly actions to revenue outcomes
- A prioritization method so small teams stop spreading themselves thin
Building Your Modern Distribution Sales Team: Hire Right, Train Smart, Manage Strategically
- The skills and traits that actually predict field sales performance
- A 30/60/90-day ramp plan that drives early results
- An accountability structure that keeps momentum without hovering
Taproom & Hospitality
Teenagers, Name Tags, Bells, and a Sandwich Shop: What Four Places That Don't Pour Beer Know About Your Taproom
- Big-brand hospitality concepts translated to a room with a tap list and a small crew
- The five guest moments where small changes move onsite revenue
- How to turn your best bartender's instincts into a system the whole team runs
The Art of the Upsell: How Taproom Staff Can Sell More Without Feeling Like They're Selling
- Language patterns for six common guest scenarios that feel like hospitality, not a pitch
- How to read guest signals and time a recommendation so it lands
- A coaching approach managers can sustain without constant supervision
Pints, Tabs, and Traffic: The Taproom Trends Worth Watching
- The top taproom numbers: transactions, average tab, sales by hour, product mix, repeat visits
- Trends that reveal traffic problems, discount creep, and inefficient shifts
- Practical financial indicators for smarter calls on hours, staffing, and events
Marketing & Brand
Tell Your Brand Story: Differentiators That Work
- A process for uncovering real differentiators beyond quality, craft, and community
- How to match messaging to the right channels and touchpoints
- Why narrowing your audience makes you stronger, not smaller
Get Found, Get Visited: SEO & AIO That Drive Foot Traffic
- The handful of SEO fixes that create the biggest local visibility gains
- Why basic SEO is now the foundation for AI discovery
- Free tools to track progress so it doesn't fall off the list
Digital Marketing in 2026: Do This, Not That
- Clear roles for each channel so social stops getting a job it wasn't built for
- Goal-setting matched to each product's life cycle stage
- A short list of metrics that make ROI decisions faster
Data & Operations
Make Room for What Sells
- An objective scorecard for every SKU decision
- Where profit leaks hide in an oversized lineup
- How to make the cut without the guilt, and defend it internally
Stop Just Tracking KPIs and Start Using Them
- Leading vs. lagging metrics, and why leading indicators protect your business
- The KPIs that matter across sales, taproom, marketing, production, and finance
- Department scorecards that turn tracking into decisions
From Silos to Systems: Build a Beverage Business That Actually Works Together
- A goal structure connecting daily work to revenue and profit outcomes
- Meeting rhythms that create accountability without eating the week
- A shared scorecard that gives early warning before problems get expensive
AI For Beverage Businesses
AI 202: Run Your Business Smarter · Real Tools, Real Workflows, Real Results
- Budget-friendly AI use cases for FOH, BOH, admin, finance, sales, HR, and marketing
- How to write a clean brief so work can be handed off instead of hoarded
- The compliance and privacy lines you never cross
Don't see the exact fit? Julie builds custom sessions for guilds, associations, and private teams all the time. The menu is a starting point, not a cage.
Why Organizers Trust Her With The Mic
Recognition
- 2023 Brewers Association Mentor of the Year
- Member, Brewers Association Business Development Committee
- Member, CBC Selection Committee
- Board member, North American Guild of Beer Writers
- Co-founder, Safe Bars P.A.C.T. Initiative
In The Classroom
- Certified instructor, University of Vermont Business of Craft Beer program
- Instructor and advisory board member, UC Davis
- Instructor, University of Richmond
She teaches this material at the university level, then translates it for the taproom.
In The Press
- Featured source in Forbes, Brewbound, Sightlines, and Brewing Industry Guide
- Published in Craft Brewing Business, The Brewer Magazine, Ekos CraftLab, and ProBrewer
- Former industry Editor at PorchDrinking.com
Done The Job
- 20+ years in the beverage industry, 13 of them in supplier-side sales, brand marketing, regional management, and chain sales
- Cicerone Certified and Cannabis Beverage Certified
- COO and co-founder, Kick Fizz hemp beverage
- Host, This Is Not Your Hobby podcast
Put a speaker on stage who's actually done the job.
Send the event, the date, the audience, and the format. You'll get a straight answer on availability, fees, and which session fits your room best. Podcast and media requests are welcome too.
Reach Out To Book Her