The following is an email I wrote last Monday (October 14th, 2020) as part of the daily emails I send out. After being asked about this issue again, I decided to post the email here so you’re clued in on the situation.
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I’m not too fond of politics and I hate that I have to write this in the first place.
Either way, politics have been intertwined into our business in the weirdest way possible and I need to clear something up.
About a month ago, I received a message on Instagram. Essentially it said, “We were going to come into RockPit, but we saw a political sign on your building and decided to leave.”
I happened to be at the brewery at the time and went outside to investigate.
I looked at our building, and I didn’t see what they were talking about.
I went out to the road, thinking maybe someone stuck a sign in the front parking lot.
Nothing.
But then, I looked at the building next to the RockPit building, and I spotted it. I was like…
For those that don’t know, there are two buildings on our property.
RockPit occupies the one on the left.
Orlando Homebrew Supplies occupies the bottom floor of the one on the right, and we use the warehouse (the big garage door) for storage.
But what most people don’t know is there is an apartment upstairs above OHBS.
In fact, this is probably you right now…
That apartment is occupied by an employee of the person that owns both of the buildings. They have been living in that apartment before we signed our lease back in 2018.
And yes, the occupant of the apartment has a political sign of a presidential candidate in his window.
I could see how people would confuse that window for one in our building and assume it was our sign. After all, it does look like it’s all one building.
To be perfectly clear, I don’t care about the sign. I don’t get offended by the sight of a sign and assumed others wouldn’t either so I haven’t addressed the issue on a mass scale.
And to be fair, most of our customers couldn’t care less.
But with multiple people letting me know they and their friends won’t come to RockPit because they thought we had a political sign in our window, I felt like I had to clear this up.
If you think I’m writing this to distance ourselves from our neighbor, you’d be wrong. I couldn’t care less what political sign they have in their window. Trump, Biden, Asteroid 2020, whatever.
I’m writing this for two reasons.
1) If you aren’t coming to RockPit because you assumed the sign was ours, now you know why it’s there. And to quote G.I. Joe: Knowing is half the battle.
Side note: I’m so happy I finally got to use that GIF.
2) As usual, I like to give you insight into the absurdity business owners have to deal with. Especially in the current political climate. It’s never boring, that’s for sure.
Just another day in paradise. Seriously though. I love this stuff. Running a business without problems would probably be boring. Glad I don’t have to do it.
Now if you’re wondering why I keep highlighting the word “assumed”, there’s a good reason for it.
I want you to stop doing something.
If you stop doing this, you’ll immediately improve all areas of your life.
Your work life will be less frustrating, your relationships will improve and you’ll be in a better mood all the time.
You ready for it? Here it is: stop making assumptions.
Assumptions are the root of so many of your frustrations and create unnecessary problems in your life.
If you ever muttered the statement “I just assumed…” and discovered you were wrong, you know what I’m talking about.
Unclear about something? Ask questions. The truth, less frustration, and more happiness are on the other side of questions.
Falsehoods, stress, and sadness are on the other side of assumptions.
I mean, think about how sad it was for those who made the assumption that the political sign was ours and have missed out on some of the best beer and atmosphere in Orlando because of it.
Even sadder is if they’re still unaware, they’re going to miss out on Buried Sunshine (our fastest selling New England IPA) and our new Rock Hard Water with Pineapple and Coconut this week.
It breaks my heart to think about them missing out on those releases.
I’m stoked you won’t have to suffer that fate.
Cheers and I’ll see you at RockPit this week,
Chris
So there you go. I hope that by posting that here, it will clear up the confusion. And again, if you don’t receive my emails, go here to sign up and add a little bit of spice to your day.
