In this episode of the Knoodle Founders Hour, host Rosaria Cain sits down with Megan Greenwood, founder of Greenwood Brewing, to discuss her journey from a corporate design engineer to the sole owner of a thriving, women-powered brewery.
After receiving a home brew kit as a birthday gift in 2014, Megan spent years perfecting her craft in her garage while working full-time designing utility-scale solar projects. Feeling stifled by the slow-moving nature of corporate America, she decided to take control of her destiny. By 2017, she launched Greenwood Brewing, initially brewing at 3 a.m. and hustling to sell her beer to nearly 100 restaurants before taking a massive leap to open a downtown Phoenix brick-and-mortar location in the summer of 2020.
In this episode, you’ll discover:
- Defying Industry Norms: What it is like being a female founder in an industry where fewer than 3% of brewing companies are women-owned, and why 85% of her job applicants are women drawn to her mission.
- Navigating New Drinking Trends: How the craft beer market is being heavily disrupted by Gen Z’s fear of negative social media virality and the widespread use of appetite-suppressing GLP-1 medications.
- The Pivot to Premium: Why Megan abandoned her original goal of nationwide volume distribution, realizing that shifting to a boutique, hyper-local model using real, high-quality seasonal ingredients—like actual blueberry puree and prickly pear—was the true path to profitability.
- Surviving a 2020 Launch: The intense reality of opening a brick-and-mortar brewery in July 2020 with a massive loan on the line, navigating pandemic restrictions, and successfully fulfilling a community’s deep need to gather safely.
- Authentic Leadership: How she balances entrepreneurship with raising two young kids using strict 12-week goals, and why true leadership means being comfortably imperfect and showing genuine emotion to your team.
Entrepreneurs navigating sudden industry shifts, women breaking into male-dominated fields, and local business owners looking to scale will all benefit from this deep dive into agile and authentic leadership.
Listen to the full episode of the Knoodle Founders Hour podcast to hear Megan’s refreshing take on business, community, and building a brand that brings people together.
Full Transcript
Rosaria Cain 0:00
Welcome, Megan Greenwood.
Megan Greenwood 0:02
Thank you so much.
Rosaria Cain 0:03
So, tell me about the brewing business. How long and how fun is it to brew your own beer?
Megan Greenwood 0:10
It is very fun. I started brewing beer, actually, in my kitchen and graduated to my garage, and that was really fun, and then today now we get to experiment and make really cool new beer, and it’s just a product that puts a smile on people’s faces and gives them rosy cheeks sometimes, and so it’s just it’s a really fun fun product to make.
Rosaria Cain 0:38
Well, that’s great. How long before your started your business, were you brewing?
Megan Greenwood 0:44
Well, I started Greenwood in 2017 and I started, actually received a home brew kit for my birthday in 2014. So, I received it from my roommate, he thought I’d really enjoy home brewing, and it turns out I did, and so I brewed for about three years before I started Greenwood, and then I was renting space at another local brewery, starting Greenwood Brewing out of their brewery, after that.
Rosaria Cain 1:10
That’s great. Didn’t they see this competition coming up the road?
Megan Greenwood 1:14
They aren’t, they aren’t sadly no longer in business.
Rosaria Cain 1:18
Oh, I’m so sorry.
Megan Greenwood 1:22
But yeah, I was, I, you know, was pounding pavements, hustling. I was actually brewing at three in the morning, I’d go to work full time, and was brewing, was selling beer after hours, and just trying to get my beer into restaurants while I was renting this space, and after about the first year was in over 100 restaurants with Greenwood Beer, or almost 100 restaurants with Greenwood Beer, and then it just kind of took off from there.
Rosaria Cain 1:50
Well, congratulations. What were you doing for a living when you were selling beer?
Megan Greenwood 1:53
I’m an engineer by degree.
Rosaria Cain 1:55
Oh, great.
Megan Greenwood 1:56
Something a little bit unique, I guess, like, you don’t always hear engineers. Well, actually, you kind of do hear like science.
Rosaria Cain 1:56
They have to do something fun. Engineering is really serious.
Megan Greenwood 2:05
It’s really serious. Yeah, and they have to do something fun. That’s right. So I started. I worked for manufacturing companies, so I made Herbal Essences shampoo and Whirlpool refrigerators and John Deere farming equipment, and the most recent company I worked for made electrical equipment, so I did a lot of design engineering, and it’s really a lot of the things I was doing was very comparable to what I’m doing today, just a little bit different to our product, and a little bit more fun.
Rosaria Cain 2:44
Well, how is it selling beer right now? I know the economy is a little unusual right now, and the temperature on politics and everything going on is a little strange.
Megan Greenwood 2:59
Yeah,
Rosaria Cain 2:59
How’s the beer market doing? Do people drink more during these times, or the same, or less, especially beer. I mean, we’ll just talk about beer.
Megan Greenwood 3:09
Yeah, let’s in just beer. Beer has been interesting over the past decade. Beer, especially craft beer, had a movement in like the late 80s, early 90s, and that movement continued really until recently. It was just an upward trajectory where there were more craft breweries opening than closing. That’s really shifted in the last few years, especially the last year. So I would say from an alcohol perspective, beer included in that. The last year, it’s not just the economy, but really the lifestyle of people is really changing, especially Americans. So, you know, GLP-1s are very real. There’s, you know, I don’t even know what the statistic is there. I think I saw somewhere there was like 30% of Americans are on a GLP-1.
Rosaria Cain 3:57
That’s crazy.
Megan Greenwood 3:58
Which is crazy. I mean it’s amazing.
Rosaria Cain 4:00
Because you lose your appetite, that doesn’t sound like it’s any fun at all.
Megan Greenwood 4:03
I know. Well, it’s working for some people, and so, like, hey, to each their own. And, but alcohol is like when you’re on that kind of a drug, I guess you suppress your appetite and express your craving for alcohol, and so it does really affect it, really affects beer, it affects every alcohol, you know.
Rosaria Cain 4:27
And food.
Megan Greenwood 4:28
Food, of course, restaurant tours, everything you know, but like even you ask any restaurant tour, their alcohol sales are likely down. Now, do I think that that’s going to be forever? No, I think that it’s a moment in time, and people are always going to be looking for something delicious to go with their pasta or steak or burger or whatever. I don’t think that, like, beer is gone. It’s just a very interesting time for all of us to be operating.
Rosaria Cain 4:56
It’s an interesting time, and it’s a challenge. I’ve heard that Gen Z’s, you know, your young up-and-comers aren’t drinking as much either.
Megan Greenwood 5:04
Right.
Rosaria Cain 5:04
Do you see that?
Megan Greenwood 5:05
100% Yeah.
Rosaria Cain 5:06
Gosh, when I was a kid, everybody drank beer.
Megan Greenwood 5:10
Oh well, so okay.
Rosaria Cain 5:11
Now, granted, that’s going back like a long time. The ’70s
Megan Greenwood 5:16
But the difference, though, that even me, I drink tons of beer. I mean, the I like–
Rosaria Cain 5:21
Well, it’s a rite of passage, right?
Megan Greenwood 5:23
It’s a rite of passage, but it also, the sad part about Gen Z and their generation, in my opinion, which is sad, is that they have had social media as like a watchdog for their entire lives,
Rosaria Cain 5:37
And they haven’t had any fun.
Megan Greenwood 5:39
I mean–
Rosaria Cain 5:39
They really haven’t had any fun, and they don’t want to have any fun.
Megan Greenwood 5:43
I think that their version of fun is very different than our version of fun at that time. Like, it was a little bit more carefree. You didn’t have the constant concern that you’re going to go viral for something stupid you did last night. They all do. They all have to have to have to worry about that, you know, if you’re going, and you’re, you know, a young male going to hit on a woman, like you could get videoed and go viral for just that, you know, like let alone adding, introducing alcohol into the mix.
Rosaria Cain 6:17
Because you think about it, too, when we were young, any one of us would have been capable of saying something incredibly stupid.
Megan Greenwood 6:25
Oh 100%!
Rosaria Cain 6:26
Or doing something incredibly stupid.
Megan Greenwood 6:28
We did every night!
Rosaria Cain 6:29
And we did.
Megan Greenwood 6:30
Every night.
Rosaria Cain 6:30
Right? Totally, but you’re right, we didn’t film everything.
Megan Greenwood 6:35
No we didn’t film everything. And those, like, the poor Gen Z is the one that has to be the first crew, you know, go through, like this is their life.
Rosaria Cain 6:44
This will pass though. Don’t you think this will pass?
Megan Greenwood 6:45
I think this will pass. I think it will pass. I think that the, that the viral stuff is just gonna go away. People are gonna be so annoyed with it that they’re gonna be like, it’s gonna be like a social, like faux pas. I think.
Rosaria Cain 6:59
I hope so.
Megan Greenwood 7:00
I think it will. I think it will get there to where it’s just–
Rosaria Cain 7:02
It takes too much time to keep up with social media.
Megan Greenwood 7:05
Well, and not that it’s the social media that’s going away.
Rosaria Cain 7:07
For marketing, it’s great, and for certain things it really fills a need.
Megan Greenwood 7:12
Oh for sure, I don’t necessarily think social media is going away. Well, social media, let’s be honest, is gone. Social, the social part is gone.
Rosaria Cain 7:20
They took the social out of social media. There is no social.
Megan Greenwood 7:21
There is no social.
Rosaria Cain 7:24
It’s a substitute for social.
Megan Greenwood 7:26
100% Yes, but I think I do think that the virality, like the negative virality, will go. I think that that won’t last forever, which, so–
Rosaria Cain 7:37
Let’s hope.
Megan Greenwood 7:37
For that Gen-Z group.
Rosaria Cain 7:38
That and GLP-1.
Megan Greenwood 7:40
And the GLP-1.
Rosaria Cain 7:42
They’ll find a side effect. Don’t worry.
Megan Greenwood 7:43
I’m not even like, honestly, to each their own, but I do, and they’re gonna come back to beer eventually. I know they will like it, no matter what. Get once they get to maintenance, then they’re, you know, they’re gonna go back to beer, and I like, I don’t think it, it’s just a, it’s just a time we all have to figure out, that’s business, you know, that’s fun, family, like that’s business, baby, like you have to, you have to move and pivot every day, and it’s if you don’t, if you’re not growing, changing, you’re dying, right? Like, you, it’s just business. We all have to take it day by day.
Rosaria Cain 8:30
Now, when you opened in 2017 I bet you didn’t see any of this coming, because I don’t think any of us saw a pill that would magically, or a shot that would magically take weight off, or that people would stop having any kind of social interaction once they reached, well, really never. I mean, a lot of the Gen Z’s never had any social interaction.
Megan Greenwood 8:53
Well, I mean, they, yeah, like their version is different.
Rosaria Cain 8:58
It’s very screen related.
Megan Greenwood 9:00
It can be screen related, I think, like, I at the end of the day, though, they also haven’t had kids yet.
Rosaria Cain 9:11
They’re talking about not having kids.
Megan Greenwood 9:13
Right? Exactly.
Rosaria Cain 9:14
They don’t even date. I mean, don’t you have to date first before the kids?
Megan Greenwood 9:17
And so, hopefully, there’s that’s like the next GLP-1, right? It’s like, let’s figure out how to get these Gen Zers like dating and, and
Rosaria Cain 9:27
Procreate.
Megan Greenwood 9:28
Procreating, and then once you procreate, tell me, like, you’re gonna want some beer. Let me tell you.
Rosaria Cain 9:34
Well, you’re gonna need the beer before you procreate.
Megan Greenwood 9:39
Exactly. So I mean, but ultimately I think you’re looking for an experience, no matter what. At some point in your life, you’re going to be looking for an experience, and we’ll be here for when that happens.
Rosaria Cain 9:52
Well, you’ve had some experiences, because you started in 2017 so you were three, you had three years before the pandemic.
Megan Greenwood 10:00
Yeah, yes, I was wholesale only at that time.
Rosaria Cain 10:02
Okay, all right.
Megan Greenwood 10:03
And then we opened our brick and mortar
Rosaria Cain 10:05
During 2020.
Megan Greenwood 10:08
in 2020.
Rosaria Cain 10:09
All right. Were you even allowed to open?
Megan Greenwood 10:11
Technically, yes, we were.
Rosaria Cain 10:13
Okay, great.
Megan Greenwood 10:15
Beer, and the production of beer was a essential business.
Rosaria Cain 10:19
It was essential.
Megan Greenwood 10:20
And the primary purpose of our location was the production of beer.
Rosaria Cain 10:25
Okay. Oh, see, perfect.
Megan Greenwood 10:27
Yeah, and so, yeah, we were able to open in 2020. I started construction in 2018 with a two-year build to open in March of 2020.
Rosaria Cain 10:39
Now this is your Roosevelt store.
Megan Greenwood 10:41
Roosevelt, yeah.
Rosaria Cain 10:41
Yep.
Megan Greenwood 10:42
Downtown Phoenix.
Rosaria Cain 10:42
Very nice.
Megan Greenwood 10:43
Beer garden.
Rosaria Cain 10:44
I was there yesterday.
Megan Greenwood 10:45
Love it. Thank you. And not far from here.
Rosaria Cain 10:48
No.
Megan Greenwood 10:49
And so we, you know, we were aiming for March of 2020 from for two years. So I mean, it was
Rosaria Cain 10:57
Boy, did you pick a good date?
Megan Greenwood 10:58
I know. So our brewing equipment was actually getting delivered the day that we shut down.
Rosaria Cain 11:04
Gosh, what luck?
Megan Greenwood 11:06
What luck.
Rosaria Cain 11:06
It’s a great story, though.
Megan Greenwood 11:08
It is a great story. It is a great story.
Rosaria Cain 11:10
So you were able to stay open as an essential service because you were producing beer, which is excellent. How was business then?
Megan Greenwood 11:19
Well, we opened in July, so we pushed back the opening date as long as we could.
Rosaria Cain 11:23
Right.
Megan Greenwood 11:23
But at that time I’m the sole owner of Greenwood, I’m self-funded.
Rosaria Cain 11:28
Because the closing happened in March is when things started to show themselves.
Megan Greenwood 11:33
Correct, and so I took out a loan to open Greenwood, and by the July, you know, I had been two and a half years into this building. Yeah, I left my corporate job over a year before that, so I was…
Rosaria Cain 11:50
So you’re an engineer, so that means you were an incredible planner.
Megan Greenwood 11:53
Yeah, I am a planner.
Rosaria Cain 11:55
And a chemist, which is perfect.
Megan Greenwood 12:00
At this point now, my brewer makes way better beer than I ever did, but yeah, I mean, we had my loan payments were due, my lease payments were due, my credit cards were maxed, I had people on payroll that weren’t working. It was, you know, a perfect storm, and so it was like we either open or we never open, and so we opened, because I was like, how am I going to pay back this almost million dollar loan?
Rosaria Cain 12:29
Oh, EIDL money?
Megan Greenwood 12:30
No, no, I didn’t. I didn’t get any of that stuff, because we opened in 2020.
Rosaria Cain 12:35
Oh, okay.
Megan Greenwood 12:36
So, like, a lot of that was all based off of previous years.
Rosaria Cain 12:39
Yeah, that’s right.
Megan Greenwood 12:40
So, like, businesses that opened in 2020–
Rosaria Cain 12:43
You did it the old fashioned way.
Megan Greenwood 12:44
Oh, yeah, SBA loans.
Rosaria Cain 12:46
Yeah. Been there.
Megan Greenwood 12:48
And that was the only way to open, and there’s so much we could do an episode on lending, and but it was, we opened it was 112 degrees outside, and there was a line down the street, and people calling the police, so it was extremely polarizing.
Rosaria Cain 13:11
Calling the police. Now, why would they call the police?
Megan Greenwood 13:15
Well, at the time, if you were… I don’t even want to go back to this time, but at the time, so people were like getting a beer, sitting down and drinking the beer without their masks on,
Rosaria Cain 13:24
Scandalous. Positively scandalous. Well, at least Arizona was the right place.
Megan Greenwood 13:31
I know we got lucky.
Rosaria Cain 13:31
Could have been California.
Megan Greenwood 13:33
it could have been.
Rosaria Cain 13:33
Or New York.
Megan Greenwood 13:34
A lot of places that would have just never let us open. Yeah, and RIP, we would have never made it. I would have a million dollar loan on my books and not have a business if that were the case, like terrible. So, yeah, right place for sure. And you know, we just kind of put one foot in front of the other every day.
Rosaria Cain 13:57
And you found enough people that were brave enough to drink beer in the middle of summer, because there was nothing to do. There was nothing to do. The good news, I guess, is you had no competition.
Megan Greenwood 14:08
I really didn’t have any competition.
Rosaria Cain 14:09
Because bars couldn’t open.
Megan Greenwood 14:10
Bars couldn’t open. We actually, it was just a crazy time. Bars couldn’t open. There were lots of people just choosing to be closed, you know, like, so there wasn’t a lot of competition. Yeah, but I am like, I said we had a line down the street when we, the day we opened.
Rosaria Cain 14:32
That’s awesome.
Megan Greenwood 14:33
So it was, you know, do what you got to do.
Rosaria Cain 14:39
Right?
Megan Greenwood 14:39
And, and also like people downtown wanted a place to go.
Rosaria Cain 14:43
Yeah.
Megan Greenwood 14:43
And to gather and to have community, and so I feel like we were that place for a while.
Rosaria Cain 14:51
That’s great.
Megan Greenwood 14:51
I mean, I think it’s great too.
Rosaria Cain 14:54
So, who do you see come in there? So I know beer trends more male than female. All we talked about Gen Z and baby not being the biggest beer drinkers, but probably 30s, 40s, millennials, baby boomers.
Megan Greenwood 14:55
Retirees.
Rosaria Cain 14:58
All ages.
Megan Greenwood 15:02
All ages, yeah.
Rosaria Cain 15:04
What kind of person is more discerning for their beer? So I’m so your beer is clearly really well recognized. You’re in 400 restaurants and grocery stores. What makes it different?
Megan Greenwood 15:30
My beer, I would say, is is approachable, and we like to just elevate traditional beer styles to being absolutely delicious, just easy, easy drinking. I don’t necessarily, I’m not going to be the one that’s going to make the Imperial IPA or Imperial Stout, or whatever. That’s just not me. I think that those places can exist. I’m also not going to probably be the one that’s going to make all the weird, crazy sours, that’s also not me, but we are really approachable. We like to, like, have fun with our beer, and I, I like to say that we don’t add other things to beer. But now, looking back, I, you know, have done a lot of collaborations with other brands where we’ve added green tea and rose petals and lemongrass and coffee, and just a lot of really fun different things that make just make for a really delicious product, and that’s got to be their number one approachability. People that come in and they say, I don’t really like beer, are some of my favorite guests that come in the door, because I’m like, you just haven’t found a beer that you like yet.
Rosaria Cain 16:41
Do you think that’s true?
Megan Greenwood 16:42
I don’t think that’s true. I think that they just haven’t found a beer that they like.
Rosaria Cain 16:45
I mean, so all right, I will. I will confess, I do not like beer. So now I’m gonna have to go into your brewery and drink some beer. So, do people acquire a taste for it, or is it just they haven’t really had the right beer?
Megan Greenwood 16:46
Both.
Rosaria Cain 16:50
Okay. All right.
Megan Greenwood 17:01
I would say once you drink beer and you find something you like, your palate will continue to evolve to like more beer flavored beer, like is what we just kind of say in the industry, like beer flavored beer. So, like for example, I have a Harvest Diem Spiced Ale. It’s a pumpkin spice beer. It comes with a honey sugar cinnamon rim. It literally tastes like fall in a glass.
Rosaria Cain 17:28
It sounds good.
Megan Greenwood 17:28
It’s just lovely. It’s just a lovely beer, and it’s like our entrance into beer. If you don’t really like beer, you’ll probably like that one. The other one that we like to give is our blueberry wheat. Our blueberry wheat is also one that is a little bit tart, but it’s very blueberry forward, but like the real blueberry, not like artificial blueberry.
Rosaria Cain 17:49
So you put real blueberries in it?
Megan Greenwood 17:50
We put real blueberries, yes, we use actual real whole product.
Rosaria Cain 17:55
Well that obviously sets you apart, because I don’t think anyone else does that.
Megan Greenwood 18:00
It’s very rare to find that, because it’s very expensive, you know, to buy like big gallons size bags of blueberry puree is expensive.
Rosaria Cain 18:13
Right?
Megan Greenwood 18:13
You know what blueberries cost in the grocery store!
Rosaria Cain 18:15
Because it doesn’t last that long.
Megan Greenwood 18:17
No, it doesn’t last that long, it’s, and we’re buying it, so where we buy it from, we buy it from places that are harvesting it during the season, so like there are some things we just can’t get because it’s not in season, right?
Rosaria Cain 18:29
So you change your beers according to the season?
Megan Greenwood 18:32
Yes, we have to, or like, for example, coming up we’re doing a prickly pear, but it’s going to be prickly pear season, so we can actually source this, like the product.
Rosaria Cain 18:42
That’s cool.
Megan Greenwood 18:43
Yeah.
Rosaria Cain 18:44
And that’s got such a southwestern kind of flavor.
Megan Greenwood 18:47
Oh yeah, it’s and it’s a stunning, it’s a beautiful beer.
Rosaria Cain 18:49
Really?
Megan Greenwood 18:50
Absolutely beautiful, it’s like bright pink, it’s just so beautiful, but it’s
Rosaria Cain 18:56
Pink?
Megan Greenwood 18:56
Pink.
Rosaria Cain 18:57
It’s pink?
Megan Greenwood 18:57
Bright pink like, like, yes, pink, pink, pink, it’s such a pretty beer, it’s a seltzer, but it’s so.. it just is just like radiant, and I, but we come up with like these great high-quality premium, you know, expensive at $8 a beer, products.
Rosaria Cain 19:22
But I mean, there’s a lot of other ways you could spend more money on alcohol than an $8 beer.
Megan Greenwood 19:28
Oh, 100%
Rosaria Cain 19:29
I mean, you can’t really get an $8 glass of wine.
Megan Greenwood 19:32
No,
Rosaria Cain 19:33
You really, I don’t even think it’s possible. No, anymore. I mean, it’s been about five years since I’ve seen an $8 glass of wine.
Megan Greenwood 19:40
Well, and you just spent $8 on your latte this morning, so like an $8 beer is cheap!
Rosaria Cain 19:46
Cheap entertainment. No, I totally agree with you. So, how you’ve kind of given me a hint, how do you position your brewery so it so I. And I’ve read on your website words like authentic, approachable. And it’s not truly a quality beer, especially really talking to you and really getting to know the category even better, is not expensive. I mean, there’s a lot of other ways to blow money, and even a comparable drink and spend way more.
Megan Greenwood 20:24
Yes.
Rosaria Cain 20:25
How do you position it?
Megan Greenwood 20:27
Well, so the way that we position Greenwood, and this is only recent, so when I started Greenwood, I thought I was going to be the craft beer Michelob Ultra, like we were gonna nationwide distribution, I was going to be low calorie, low ABV, and I still provide that kind of a product. I do have a low calorie, low ABV product, it does very well. But what happened in the middle there? So I started in 2017 in the middle you had your Ballast Point Billion dollar sale, or whatever that was, you had your, your Lagunitas, like nationwide distribution, Odell, there’s a ton of breweries to, like, talk about that during that time, just thrived, and it was because craft beer was thriving, but there wasn’t a lot available all over the place.
Rosaria Cain 21:23
So there’s a supply issue.
Megan Greenwood 21:25
Well, yeah, the three-tier system in distribution doesn’t allow for every state to have a really easy way to get your beer into people’s hands. So it was during that time where, like, breweries and, like, brewers guilds haven’t really changed and states haven’t changed their laws, and their liquor licenses to really accommodate for this shift in preference, is how I see it. This is like my speculation, anyway. In the whole grand scheme of things, then all of us as a society really wanted to go back to local, hyper local, buy local, go to the farmers market, all this stuff. Go to your local pub, they’re brewing it right there, they’re brewing the beer right there, they’re making, they’re roasting the coffee right there. Okay, now I’m going to go back to that kind of like local pub type of mentality. So now your nationwide beers didn’t matter as much to the consumer.
Rosaria Cain 22:26
It was cooler somehow.
Megan Greenwood 22:29
It was cooler to be smaller.
Rosaria Cain 22:31
Right?
Megan Greenwood 22:32
And it was cooler to go to your local place versus going and buying the big beer company label, and you were cooler and more like hip if you knew the best new thing, it didn’t necessarily need to be beer, but it was the best, like the new local spot, the new local beer, the new local whatever. Okay, so that all kind of happened in this decade, right? And so I like saw this all happening, and at the time I was still playing the original game, trying to climb to like the top and be like nationwide distribution and play that volume game, so I was still trying to get in that like in that lane. Then I started to realize like we were the top 20 in the top 20 largest breweries two years ago, and it was that year, actually, that I was like, this is, I am racing to the bottom in profitability, while I’m trying to race to the top in production, and I just was like, what am I doing here? I’m gonna, it’s gonna take me a decade to get paid, because I’m gonna just continue to put all of my money I’m making back into the business, and so it really shifted my mindset. I’m like, as especially as the sole owner and the only investor in the business is me, so like any growth comes out of my pocket,
Rosaria Cain 23:57
Right? Talk about self-funded.
Megan Greenwood 23:57
Right? So it’s like, well, what do I want my lifestyle to be like? Also, what do I think is best for the brand and our community, and it was very clear shifting the entire model, small batch premium brand, high quality, making the beer with the actual ingredients that come from the actual like grain company that come from the actual blueberry harvester, you know, like all of the ingredients are pure raw, good high quality, you know, and moving into that direction and continuing to stay quote unquote small and boutique, and that was clearly the right, like I think that was clearly the right direction. It took a lot to get to that. I had to shift the entire, and we talked about strategy a little bit in your market, like your marketing strategy. It takes a whole business strategy behind the scenes to actually make that happen, right? So we had to buy a canning line, I had to, a new canning line that made small batches.
Rosaria Cain 24:59
Good thing you were an engineer, just saying.
Megan Greenwood 25:02
So it was just like the whole infrastructure had to follow, so that was that’s where we are. That’s how I position our brand. We are boutique brewery. We will make high-quality, delicious beer that is approachable, and we really create an amazing community gathering space, and that’s where our future growth is.
Rosaria Cain 25:25
What’s the biggest challenge to you right now? So, you’ve gotten over COVID, we got through, we all got through that. We talked about Gen Z not being a big drinking community, we talked about about certain weight loss medications that change people’s need for food and drink. What’s your biggest challenge right now?
Megan Greenwood 25:50
I would say all the above, and add to that the fact that we live in Arizona, and we lost a lot of Canadians these past couple years, right?
Rosaria Cain 25:59
No, our clients are all feeling it.
Megan Greenwood 26:02
Real, real, that’s real for Arizona.
Rosaria Cain 26:05
Arizona is a big purveyor of Canadian tourism, that’s really important here.
Megan Greenwood 26:10
So important. And we just lost a lot of that.
Rosaria Cain 26:13
Winter visitors. Yep.
Megan Greenwood 26:15
And we lost, you know, a lot of Mexican visitors as well. So now we’ve got–
Rosaria Cain 26:21
Our current climate just has a way of rubbing whole groups of people wrong.
Megan Greenwood 26:26
Right? I know. No matter where you come from in political side, you know that that’s the case. It’s a very real scenario for all of us right now, and so I would say, like, where’s my biggest challenge? I would say actually it’s none of those things. My biggest challenge, because no matter what, that is just life.
Rosaria Cain 26:50
Yeah, and there’ll always be something.
Megan Greenwood 26:53
There’ll always be something. So then it’s your job as a business-preneur, you know, to continue to figure out what is your edge, what is going to work for you and your guests, and how do you, how do you need to transform your business to make it work, and that’s an actually an easy challenge, like go throw something at the wall, like that’s why we’re all in business here, is like we want to define our destiny, right? So I think right now some of my biggest challenges.. I’m growing.. we’re entering in a new space. We have a new location company.
Rosaria Cain 27:28
Chandler, right?
Megan Greenwood 27:29
Chandler.
Rosaria Cain 27:29
Yep.
Megan Greenwood 27:30
We’re also opening a third location next year, hasn’t been announced yet. I would say, like, some of my biggest challenges is time, financial resources, growth, you know, no matter what growth, and you hear this all the time, but growth is expensive.
Rosaria Cain 27:50
It is expensive.
Megan Greenwood 27:51
And you know, you look at, I look at our numbers and stuff, and I’m just always thinking, okay, so we’re reinvesting this year into a new location, and we’re getting this all, you know, dialed in, and in an effort to, like, one day make money yourself as the owner, you know, but so I’d say, like, that’s probably the biggest challenge, time, like, you know, there’s only so much time that I have to like actually implement all this stuff, which is, I think, probably a pretty cool place to be, is like, do I think that these other challenges, yeah, they’re challenges, but my actual challenges are different. I have two young kids.
Rosaria Cain 28:38
Oh, how old?
Megan Greenwood 28:39
One and three.
Rosaria Cain 28:41
Oh my God.
Megan Greenwood 28:43
In the mean middle of these 2020 to 2026,
Rosaria Cain 28:47
So now I know where your blueberry puree goes to.
Megan Greenwood 28:50
Yeah, right, exactly, any excess, but I had two children in the time of my opening, you know, like that was really tough, and those are like real, you know, real challenges for me.
Rosaria Cain 29:05
Those are! How do you balance family and being an entrepreneur?
Megan Greenwood 29:12
It’s tough. That’s a question every day I ask, but for me, just like a tactical thing, I have Thursdays off with my kids.
Rosaria Cain 29:21
That’s nice.
Megan Greenwood 29:21
So I no matter what one day a week I have with them, just us and just me and them and my husband, and we have our weekends, but it at least gets me connected to my family again, that you know it’s really easy to be gone before they wake up and you know come home when they’re about to go to sleep, so it’s I don’t want that to be my forever.
Rosaria Cain 29:45
I can understand that, that makes perfect sense. So, were you born an entrepreneur, or or did something change you along your career path to make you one? I know the getting of the beer kit, when you, when you started out, it was a gift, was where you started, but what drives you as an entrepreneur? How did, how did this start? Like, did you have a paper route as a kid, or where did this start? Lemonade stand. Spiked lemonade stand.
Megan Greenwood 30:14
Right? Right, exactly. Seriously, probably when I was like 13.
Rosaria Cain 30:19
A limoncello stand.
Megan Greenwood 30:20
Yeah, right. I was, my dad is an is an entrepreneur. I’m an entrepreneur. I was born an entrepreneur. It was very clear when I was in corporate that I was boxed in. I was not a leader.
Rosaria Cain 30:35
I know the feeling.
Megan Greenwood 30:36
Yeah. And I was on like a global development program with my previous, with my previous company, very clearly like upward trajectory, and I would have loved it, you know, like I did love it. I did love what I was doing.
Rosaria Cain 30:51
Easier way to make a living.
Megan Greenwood 30:52
A way easier way to make a living, you know.
Rosaria Cain 30:55
Yep.
Megan Greenwood 30:55
and but it was really clear that, okay, I’m trying to like work these angles, and I’m just like hitting a brick wall, and it’s stifling my creativity. It’s making me feel like I can’t be my best self. And so it was really clear, like I can’t do this forever, like I can’t do this.
Rosaria Cain 31:18
Was there a specific event that that changed everything for you, so for instance, that made you know deep inside you couldn’t do corporate America anymore, you were, you were destined for that entrepreneurial experience.
Megan Greenwood 31:35
There was, it was so funny, kind of. Yes, there was a moment. So I worked as a design engineer, so I worked in utility scale solar projects, so I was building and designing solar projects for my company, and we had acquired a company, and that company had a ton of solar products, and I could not sell them, like I was a sales engineer, I was designing and building projects. I was in the room with the people, with the people’s decision makers, selling products. Could have made more money, for whatever reason, the company couldn’t get their act together for, like, their own sales people to sell an acquisition product, and I was like, it took, like, it was over multiple years. This is like multiple years, and I would just like continued to hit my head against one. I was like, this is so dumb, like I know that this whole organization could be better if you just figured your stuff out, and I think that’s why I was on this like development path, was like they saw my need to, like, hey, there’s a better way here, and then it was just like it would never, it was like, you know, turning a behemoth ship, right? And I need to..
Rosaria Cain 32:51
That’s the thing about corporate America, it changes slowly.
Megan Greenwood 32:55
Slowly. So it was just like, I can’t.. I need something more nimble, I need to be curative. I’m just like I’m a builder, I like to build, I like to problem solve. I needed something else, so it was really clear after that. It was like, oh, and then once the brewery thing kind of came up, I was like, oh, I could build this, I could totally do this. And I met with a partner, a potential partner, and I sat with him, and I was, he was an entrepreneur, and I was like, I think I need an entrepreneur to help me, and then it was really clear after that meeting, I was like, I don’t need anybody, I can do this.
Rosaria Cain 33:28
Now you’re one of the few women in this business, right?
Megan Greenwood 33:32
Yeah, fewer than 3% of brewing companies.
Rosaria Cain 33:36
That’s great. How’s it feel?
Megan Greenwood 33:38
I mean, feels like being a woman in any industry, being a woman! Honestly, I love it. I love it. It’s great. The men that I work with are really awesome, and I give it a different perspective. It’s no different than, like, it’s funny. I get 85% of the people who applied to Greenwood are women. I don’t know if any other brewery could say that outside of women-owned brewing companies, like brewers, assistant brewers, bartenders, you name it, marketing.
Rosaria Cain 34:09
Do they feel, do they feel the mission?
Megan Greenwood 34:11
Yes, and the answer like that we get when we ask, “Why Greenwood?” they answer, I want to work for a women-owned brewing company.
Rosaria Cain 34:19
That’s great.
Megan Greenwood 34:19
That is their answer, and so my lead in my tap room right now, he was the only one on our meeting, only man on our meeting today. I have a male hub brewer and a male assistant brewer too, and they are amazing. It’s just like we do have a lot of women in my business, and I think that’s, you know, just rare, maybe in the brewing industry. I don’t know. It’s always been that way for us.
Rosaria Cain 34:45
You’re defying convention,
Megan Greenwood 34:48
Yeah.
Rosaria Cain 34:48
and creating a little disruption on the side, and it sounds like you really enjoy it
Megan Greenwood 34:54
I love it. It’s so fun.
Rosaria Cain 34:55
Well, what makes a good leader? So you’ve spent all this time cultivating that. You had that period of development,
Megan Greenwood 35:01
Yeah.
Rosaria Cain 35:02
When you were an engineer developing solar panels, and you had that meeting, that kind of mentorship molding meeting.
Megan Greenwood 35:15
Yeah.
Rosaria Cain 35:15
What makes a good leader?
Megan Greenwood 35:17
I think there are 100 answers here. What I think ultimately would make a good leader is actually you being yourself, and I say that with, like, an asterisk, because you need to, like, listen to your team, and you need to, like, guide them, and sometimes your team just needs you to give them the answer, like we always beat around the bush, of like, hey, let them tell you the answer. Sometimes they just need you to say the thing, and, and that’s all part of it, you know. And, like, creating, like, having great values, having a great mission. We’re all on the boat, steering the ship, rowing in the same direction together, right? And that’s all really important as a leader, though. I think that it’s really important to be yourself as a leader, and I think it’s really easy, especially I can only say this as a woman, so I would say as a woman, but maybe men feel this way too, is that I started to doubt myself as a leader, of like, I think I need to be this like super polished person, always, you know, XYZ, always have the answer, always, always, I don’t know, politically correct, I just don’t think that’s true, I feel like you don’t either.
Rosaria Cain 36:37
No, I get in a lot of trouble. You know, it’s funny. Corporate America, it teaches you good and bad. And I’m older than you, so I had a different type of corporate America. It seemed like every boss I ever had was very firm, stern, and not very flexible, right? Like there are rules, and that’s how it, that’s how it goes, that’s how it goes, and corporate America is very rigid, and I worked for a TV station, but the departments did not talk to each other, which is still true today, because I deal with media, and so they still do not talk to each other better, but not quite sane, so I can understand what you’re saying, so you get your original cues when you open your business from the bosses you had, right? Exactly, because you learn to be a boss by having a boss,
Megan Greenwood 37:36
Right?
Rosaria Cain 37:37
And so you know that’s how you start, and so then you find out what feels right to you.
Megan Greenwood 37:43
Yes, and I think that the perception is that your bosses have their stuff together, and the reality is they don’t.
Rosaria Cain 37:50
And they weren’t always right.
Megan Greenwood 37:51
And they weren’t always right, and they also, that’s the beauty of it, right? Is like the beauty is in the mistakes and the mess ups, and the fact that we aren’t, that we’re human and we aren’t perfect. Perfection is boring, so it’s like…
Rosaria Cain 37:51
And you’ll never get anywhere.
Megan Greenwood 38:03
And you’ll never get anywhere anyway.
Rosaria Cain 38:08
Because it’ll never be perfect.
Megan Greenwood 38:09
No, so the aim is just not there anyway. I mean, the aim is you’re never gonna get there anyway. So I would say being a leader and just leaning into who you are and leading, like, obviously investing. I think investing in leadership and executive development is really important, and understanding just how to guide your team. And I hired an executive coach, I have one, she’s amazing, and I couldn’t be the leader I am without her, and some of the lessons I’ve learned along the way, though, are you know, in the, in the beginning stages, when I was pissed off, you know, at somebody, at something, at a situation, I’d held it all in, you know, like I have no room to be pissed off, I can be pissed off, and that’s okay, and I can, there’s a way to have that conversation with your staff about being pissed off, but it’s actually worse not saying anything, because now we’re not getting it.
Rosaria Cain 39:06
You’re probably showing it.
Megan Greenwood 39:08
I’m probably showing it, I’m probably looking passive-aggressive. They’re confused.
Rosaria Cain 39:13
You have very expressive eyes. I would bet somebody could just look and say, okay, she is not happy,
Megan Greenwood 39:22
Right? So then it’s just like, okay, no, instead say the thing you need to say, obviously in the right way with your staff, but it’s like you are who you are and continue to be who you are as a leader, just develop those skills a little bit better, you know. I think that’s that’s what I have to say.
Rosaria Cain 39:45
I think that I think that makes sense. How, so how are you approaching marketing these days?
Megan Greenwood 39:49
Right now we have a big crew.
Rosaria Cain 39:52
Okay, that’s good. I noticed your Instagram counter on the bar. In fact, I had two members of my team, I was watching them, they both contributed to your Instagram account on the spot, so I imagine that does its job, right? I think it’s quite interesting.
Megan Greenwood 40:09
Some point, I think it’s got like nine figures on that thing, so it’s impressive. No, it’s so we’re like ready to grow, obviously, and yeah, we, I’ve done it all. I feel like I’ve hired agencies, I’ve hired an in-house full-time marketing person, and I think that the best way to approach marketing for us is having experts in their lanes, and having, so I have a lot of freelancers who work for us, and then I have a full-time person who does the execution, actually, and then I have virtual assistants who are just amazing at executing the things that need to be done, just like once we’ve developed the thing, you know, for example, like once we have an event, we need it to get posted to every single, 50 places.
Rosaria Cain 40:56
Right. That stuff takes a lot of time.
Megan Greenwood 41:04
It takes so much time and effort, and so I have a virtual assistant, and she does all that for us, and she’s amazing, and like that kind of work is very, very important, and when we don’t do it, it is very visible in the business, and so I have found that I think that my like best marketing group is when I have a really great content creator who is like creating content, and then she’s sending that content to a really great execution person, and that person is editing it quickly and getting it up, who also knows how to do the SEO, who also knows how to do the website development.
Rosaria Cain 41:49
So are you the quarterback that runs it all?
Megan Greenwood 41:52
Now I am. I’m operating as that. I’ve hired that person out in the past too, but you have to have one.
Rosaria Cain 41:58
Yeah, somebody has to do it.
Megan Greenwood 42:00
Somebody has to do it, and right now I’m leading the ship.
Rosaria Cain 42:02
That makes sense, and it looks like the ship is doing fine.
Megan Greenwood 42:05
It’s doing all right, and I’m excited. Where we are, we’re really at a turning point in the business right now.
Rosaria Cain 42:12
So, let’s get personal for a second.
Megan Greenwood 42:14
Sure.
Rosaria Cain 42:15
What do you do for fun when you’re not brewing beer?
Megan Greenwood 42:19
That’s a good question.
Rosaria Cain 42:20
Or how do you reduce the stress of having a business?
Megan Greenwood 42:24
Yeah,
Rosaria Cain 42:26
Don’t say drink beer.
Megan Greenwood 42:27
No, right, drink beer, of course, always, always have to the good days and the bad.
Rosaria Cain 42:35
Well, it’s your job.
Megan Greenwood 42:36
It is my job. Yes, reducing the stress, obvious, I would say, like, exercising, working out, getting out, and outdoors.
Rosaria Cain 42:43
Yeah.
Megan Greenwood 42:44
Outdoors in general, which is hard during this time, but you have to.
Rosaria Cain 42:49
It’s only 107 today.
Megan Greenwood 42:50
Yeah, there’s a pool.
Rosaria Cain 42:51
Megan, don’t give me that.
Megan Greenwood 42:52
That’s still outdoors activity, I count it.
Rosaria Cain 42:56
Nope, that’s outdoors.
Megan Greenwood 42:57
So, yeah, I would say something like that, I would also say, what reduces stress for me is I do like 12 week year type of stuff, so that is like I look at my year and I break it into 12 weeks, like 12 week goals.
Rosaria Cain 43:13
Yeah.
Megan Greenwood 43:14
and that’s just like more bite-sized for me, of okay, I create a goal, whether that’s a personal or professional, right, and then I’m constantly, I’m checking in on it every week, and I do this with my husband, actually..
Rosaria Cain 43:26
I’m sure he loves that.
Megan Greenwood 43:28
He doesn’t want to come to my meeting every week, but I force him.
Rosaria Cain 43:32
Does he work with you?
Megan Greenwood 43:33
No.
Rosaria Cain 43:33
Oh, okay.
Megan Greenwood 43:34
No, he has his own business, but like he comes to our meeting at 8am on Mondays, and we bring our 12 week goals, and that sets me up to, like, be less stressful, I would say.
Rosaria Cain 43:44
That makes sense.
Megan Greenwood 43:45
Just being really clear, I also use AI for everything now. I put my whole calendar into AI last year, and it built me a whole week, and so now I get so much more done, I say, like, that is just like a really good productivity tool, and, but, yeah, I would say less stress, obviously. Grab that beer from that store, from that grocery store.
Rosaria Cain 43:45
Megan, promote, promote, promote!
Megan Greenwood 43:45
And maybe go on a walk with it, you know, or like go sit by your pool.
Rosaria Cain 43:45
Isn’t there an open container law? I don’t think you can do that.
Megan Greenwood 43:45
Yeah, I know. Maybe not.
Rosaria Cain 43:45
In Europe, you can do that.
Megan Greenwood 43:45
You can walk around your…
Rosaria Cain 43:45
You walk around your house.
Megan Greenwood 43:45
House.
Rosaria Cain 43:45
Yeah.
Megan Greenwood 43:45
That’s what we do. We just walk around our house.
Rosaria Cain 43:45
Alright, I won’t tell anybody. I won’t tell anybody what’s in your water jug that you’re carrying around. Okay, last question, and my favorite, because I can’t imagine your answer, but what about you would surprise people?
Megan Greenwood 43:45
I was really trying to think about this question, what about me that would surprise people? I am a small town, probably you could call me a small town farm girl. My parents–
Rosaria Cain 43:45
Farm girl?
Megan Greenwood 44:00
kind of. Yes, I grew up in the country. I would say my, my friends would tell me back home, they’d be like, you know, you grew up in a community on a golf course, but it was in the country when you like, it’s so funny, it’s so different growing up that way, you’d like go home for the weekend, like, and you wouldn’t have access to a grocery store on a regular, like, at a regular time, so you had to, like, plan, you know, for the week or the weekend, and you can’t just like run down the street to the grocery store. It’s like you go into town to go to the grocery store.
Rosaria Cain 45:46
A lot of logistics with that.
Megan Greenwood 45:47
It’s just different. It’s a different way of life. It’s a different lifestyle. I grew up, my parents were, my grandpa, on my both of my parents’ side, they owned grocery stores, so my mom’s side, they owned a grocery store, and my dad’s side, they owned a grocery store.
Rosaria Cain 46:04
Now that must have been an incredible marriage.
Megan Greenwood 46:06
Yeah, Greenwood’s Grocery. My mom actually bought my dad’s dad’s business, so my mom ran Greenwood’s Grocery. So I grew up with a mom who was.. we went to the store and worked with, you know, like pulled shelves and swept the floors.
Rosaria Cain 46:25
It’s where you learned entrepreneurial, all the glamor.
Megan Greenwood 46:28
Yeah, behind the scenes, but she was, she would like to this day say she is not the entrepreneur, but she was the entrepreneur that I watched, strong female figure, too. Yes, for my childhood, and she ran that business until I was in high school, and then sold it, and then completely transitioned her career. But she, yes, I grew up in small town. My grand, my great grandfather was the mortician, the post office man, the feed store, the grocery store, like still today, it’s like just very.. it’s a very different way of life.
Rosaria Cain 47:12
I can see where engineering came from.
Megan Greenwood 47:14
Can you?
Rosaria Cain 47:15
Yeah, I can see where it came from. Well, thank you for dropping by, Megan Greenwood.
Megan Greenwood 47:20
Thank you.
Rosaria Cain 47:20
I think everyone should have a beer today.
Megan Greenwood 47:23
Me too! I think so too. Find it at your local grocery store, Greenwood Brewing.
Rosaria Cain 47:27
Absolutely, thanks.