Jay Haywood, a graduate from UAB with a BA in English-Professional Writing, has built his career by maneuvering through the restaurant and bar business since the day he graduated high school. He made his way from restaurant gigs and bar-backing jobs to becoming a Sales Representative for Cahaba Brewery here in Birmingham.
Because there are only two members on the sales team for this swiftly growing company, Jay’s responsibilities lie beyond those of a typical sales rep. With his service industry experience and his professional writing skills, Jay proved himself to be pretty useful to a newly established brewery in a town where many competitors have already made their mark. To learn more about Jay and his line of work, MEMORANDUM met up with him on his own turf.
Jay began his journey in Columbus, Georgia where he began working various restaurant jobs after high school. At the age of 24, he decided to move to Birmingham and begin his college career at UAB.
With a major in Secondary Education and a concentration in English, he found himself enrolled in a few Professional Writing courses and became increasingly involved with the program. After establishing a relationship with one of his professors within the PW program, he decided to shift directions and begin working towards a degree in Professional Writing.
While earning his degree, he continued working restaurant jobs to stay afloat—all the while making connections and building long-lasting professional relationships.
During the beginning of his senior year at UAB, an old friend from a previous job called him up and asked if he’d be interested in running the bar at a new brewery in town—Cahaba Brewery. This put Jay’s foot in the door of a fresh company with a quickly increasing demand.
For the remainder of his time in school and the beginnings of his time at Cahaba, he began to push the company to host events and create an online presence for itself. Once the company realized the impact of social media in today’s society, its presence became imperative. The company saw the need for this and Jay saw the opportunity to fulfill it, so he began curating online content and creating a social media following for the brand.
As the online following grew, so did the sales, thus creating a new job position for Jay as a sales representative and professional social media guru.
Jay plans events, books bands and food trucks, posts on Facebook and Instagram, updates the website, writes press releases and coordinates with distributors and graphic designers to make sure the concept of the brand remains intact.
Jay calls sales meetings, meets clients, coordinates donations for non-profit events and hosts tastings at restaurants in the state. He’s the guy shaking your hand at the end of a meeting, the guy sitting behind the computer screen booking the band for the next event and the person making sure the food truck shows up for “Good Lil’ Wednesday,” a charity fundraiser Cahaba hosts every Wednesday night for a local nonprofit organization.
He stays in contact with those who drink the beer and makes sure that the people creating it understand how crucial it is to keep Cahaba Blonde in stock. He reaches out to the other breweries and restaurants in town, making sure not to host any specials on the same night as them.
When asked how he stays in the know with the community and the customers, he says, “Because most of my work is done outside of these walls, I get to experience the people of our brand and feel more connected to our customers. It feels very close knit that way.”
Because Jay is still fairly new to this position, he is eager to learn more and create more. He is always thinking of new ways to engage with the community, whether it be through planning new events, promoting a new beer on social media or helping a nonprofit put on an event of their own. These things not only drive customers directly to the Brewery itself, but allow the personality of the brand to be experienced, which is one of Jay’s priorities when it comes to his work.
Swing by Cahaba to see how professional writing and beer can come together to form a unique and exciting career.
