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Episode 019.
Are you willing to break the barriers of your “comfort zone?” Is your natural personality holding you back? Were you made for employment or entrepreneurship?
Jereme Zimmerman is a writer and traditional brewing revivalist who lives in Kentucky with his wife, Jenna, and daughters, Sadie and Maisie. In 2015 his book Make Mead Like A Viking was published, and became an unexpected hit! He followed that up with Brew Beer Like A Yeti in 2018.
Our conversation with Jereme goes into his life as a freelance writer and how it has lead him (inadvertently) to publishing books, and giving public speeches about homebrewing and the history surrounding it. His story is interesting and inspiring – Listen Now!
- Find out more about Jereme: http://www.jereme-zimmerman.com/
- Buy & Read his books: http://www.jereme-zimmerman.com/products-1?category=Books
- Follow him on social media
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JeremeZimmYeti/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/JeremeZimm
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jeremezimm/
Find out the business events secrets for growing and strengthening ANY company: http://brianjpombo.com/secrets/
Full Transcript
Jereme: I almost think I’m just kind of made to do this kind of thing. Same as when I was homeschooling I could I get up in the morning, my dad taught high school English, you’d get up really early, I get up with him do my work, I’d be done by 11 o’clock.
Sometimes, the rest of the day I’d be playing in the woods, doing chores and stuff. And then when my school friends came home, they’d been set in school and I’m like, ready to go.
So it’s the idea of just being able to get up. And even though it can be daunting, sometimes at least I know, okay, well, here’s a list of what needs to get done.
I’ll get as much done as I can and often do my chores now.
Podcast Intro: If you’re someone who refuses to go along to get along, if you question whether the status quo was good enough for you and your family.
If you want to leave this world better off than you found it and you consider independence a sacred thing.
You may be a prepper, a gardener, a homesteader, a survivalist, or a farmer or rancher, an environmentalist or a rugged outdoorsman.
We are here to celebrate you whether you’re looking to improve your maverick business or to find out more about the latest products and services available to the weekend rebel.
From selling chicken eggs online, to building up your food storage or collecting handmade soap.
This show is for those who choose the road less traveled the road to self-reliance for those that are living a daring adventure, life off the grid.
Brian: Jereme Zimmerman is a writer and traditional brewing revivalist who lives in Berea, Kentucky. He has been published in various magazines and websites and travels globally to speak on topics such as fermentation, natural and holistic homebrewing, modern homesteading and sustainable living.
He is an avid fermenter and researches extensively into traditional fermentation practices in order to revive lost food arts, and to educate people on how to preserve food using traditional natural and healing ingredients and techniques.
His first book Make Mead Like a Viking was published in 2015. His second book, Brew Beer Like a Yeti, was published in September 2018.
Okay, Jereme Zimmerman. Welcome to the Off The Grid Biz Podcast.
Jereme: Thanks for having me.
Brian: Why don’t you tell us a little bit about who you are, and what you do?
Jereme: Well, you’ve already said my name. So we got that far.
I grew up on a goat farm in Kentucky, homeschooled all the way up through high school, didn’t go to high school. And my family was very self sufficient, can then preserved and hunted and fished and dad made his own wine from, you know, stuff he found in the woods and grew and that kind of thing.
That was my background.
And I chose to become an English major and actually use my English major for my job at this point.
I’ve been a freelance writer about 15 years now. And up until the past five, six years.
Yeah, it was just standard, just kind of business technical writing kind of thing.
My interest in homebrewing kind of started to get out there on the internet. I started blogging about it and from there very quickly turned being asteroid magazine articles to now having two books out.
Brian: What made you jump from the writing of articles to making book?
Jereme: I didn’t so much jumped as I was pushed.
So it was always this sort of yeah, like doing this, but I don’t know if anybody really wants to hear me write about.
Basically I had a friend who started a website called EarthandAir.com, which isn’t around anymore, but it was all geared toward homesteading kind of people.
And he kept pushing me to write blogs and I’ve been brewing beer. I was getting into Mead, and that was such a simpler thing to write about and talk about and I thought it was good for homesteading audience.
So I started blogging under a pseudonym redhead, a Yeti.
And he just was getting a tons of hits on the blogs and just turns out mead and Vikings were getting to be pretty big and they still are. So from there, just you know, I found a publisher at a Mother Earth News Fair.
They connected with me a presentation that I did and it just, things moved quickly from there.
Brian: So how did you end up doing presentations?
Did you ask them? Did they ask you how that start out?
Jereme: Again, I was pushed.
I my goal in becoming a writer was to live out in the woods, summer by myself, send my workout and I’d ever have to interact with people.
Turns out, you know, you kind of have to get out there in front of people.
So again, my friend Dan was here he was connected with Mother Earth News. So I’d never done anything more than talk in front of like five people at a time. And he connected me, got me doing a mead presentation to a couple hundred people at a Mother Earth News Fair in Asheville, North Carolina.
And, so I was like, do or die, why not? I’ll go ahead and do it.
And it went really well.
People kept asking if I had a book that some publishers were there and so that’s from there, I realized that the speaking thing is kind of important. So I’ve really honed my speaking skills and I’m actually starting to enjoy it.
Brian: Yeah, it’s great.
We got see your first your first presentation. Here today on beer making. That was great.
Me and the producer Sean here. You’ve written a couple of books here, can tell us a little bit about them for people who haven’t seen them yet.
Jereme: Yeah, so the first is make need like a Viking. And mead is a honey wine. It’s basically just an alcoholic beverage made from honey primarily.
And that was kind of my first blogs and my first workshops I called that, Make Mead Like a Viking.
Part of the inspiration for that was I was interested, I’ve always been interested in history and mythology and all that kind of thing.
But I’m specifically interested in how people made food and made and drink alcohol and other beverages. How they live, you know, everybody needs a drink.
So I kind of went at that from a DIY perspective.
And that’s where that came about.
And then my second book is almost twice as big as the first it’s called, Brew Beer Like a Yeti.
We decided to keep with a similar theme, but I went way beyond Viking in that one. So we didn’t didn’t really call it for beer like a Viking. And what that one is is essentially all the research I found on beer traditional beer brewing that just didn’t make sense man that made book.
So they’re kind of companion books basically.
Brian: Very cool. Got see your talk on beer making initially which is great, especially great for beginners people have never done anything like that before. I had a little bit of background I had a brother in law that had done it and so forth.
So I’d seen quite a bit of it before, it’s really great.
What’s your other presentation going to be about?
Jereme: So basically, I do a presentation for the beer book and presentation for the mead book.
So the one I’ve been doing at every Mother Earth News Fair since the first one I did like five years ago, I think it’s just make mead like a Viking. Is talking about the basics of me making and a little bit about the history mythology behind it.
And but I also do a third one Mother Earth News Fairs have started doing hands on workshops where people actually make a little bit of something and bring it home.
So we’ll be making a mead starter.
So basically, everybody takes a jar put some honey and water in a few other like fruits and berries and herbs. And that will then when they take it home as they do it right it’ll turn into a starter that they can then use as yeast to start a new batch of beer or mead.
Brian: That’s excellent. That’s so cool.
What do you hope people will walk away with after watching any of your presentations?
Jereme: Well, the one thing I always like to hear is, oh, that sounds a lot easier than I thought it would be.
So my goal has always been fermentation at its core is a very simple thing.
There are lots of lots of things you can do to make it not necessarily more complex, but more interesting. Although some people do like to make it complex.
I just really want people to understand that. It can be as complicated as you want it to be or it can be as simple as you want it to be.
So simplicity is the keyword for what I want people to walk away with.
Commercial Break: Okay, we’re going to pause the conversation right there. What you’re listening to right now is a special edition podcast. These episodes all have to do with the Mother Earth News fair in Albany, Oregon of 2019 at the time I’m recording this, we have learned so much about how to take advantage of events and I want you to be able to use this information in your own business.
Go to BrianJPombo.com/secrets. We are going to be putting out helpful materials on how you can use events to grow your business.
When you go to this page, you will either see our latest programs or if you make it there early enough, you will see an email address, capture page, put in your email address and we will be sure and update you. As soon as we get these out there, you’re not going to want to miss this.
If you get in early enough, you can get a special deal. These are principles that never go away. These programs will be based on the experience of people who have written books, spoken at the events or exhibited.
They’re talking about how to use events, books, and speaking all to build your business.
That’s BrianJPombo.com/secrets.
BrianJPombo.com/secrets and now back to the conversation.
Brian: We were talking before we started recording about how your publisher has set you up to attend these. Chelsea Green Publishing, right?
Jereme: Yeah.
Brian: And besides selling more books, what do you hope to get out of it? And what do you get out of putting these on coming to these events and so forth?
Jereme: Well, honestly, I’ve been doing it a few years now.
And I run into lots of the same people. It’s almost like a family reunion or a bunch of carnies is now I think about it.
It’s kind of a traveling carnival not just the fellow speakers, but all the people who put on the event, producers and you know, all those people are become friends and we all hang out afterwards and, you know, have a beer or whatever.
So it’s got that element.
I run into a lot of a lot of the same people who were just attending. Like this year, a guy came into my work shop and started talking to me, and I’m like I, I remember you. Yeah, I think I talked to you last year.
So there’s this real camaraderie. But I also use it as a springboard to tag on other events when I’m in a completely new area.
So I’m looking for article research for magazines. I’m finding other places in the area where I can do presentations to sell books. And you know, kind of a little bit of fun, too.
Brian: Well, that’s great. That’s really good.
Did you have a lot of history tied into everything that you do a whole lot of it’s a history lesson. Has that always been an interest to you?
Has it been something that’s just grown out of the general interest of making these things?
Jereme: Yeah, little both. I mean, I’ve always been just a history geek and and not just history, but the literature mythology and stuff of different time periods. And I always just figured it was just me and a couple of my geeky friends and it would never go beyond that.
But it just naturally became part of what I teach. I don’t really want to just teach.
Here’s how to do this A, B, and C, good job, go home. I want to learn how other people did in the past and it just kind of has become a natural thing for me to then pass it on to other people.
Brian: So you travel quite a bit to do these type of things. You have any logistical tips for other people that might be traveling and speaking doing some more things?
Jereme: Yeah, I probably got a ton of them. I don’t I don’t know how many am I want to get into.
But basically, try to get as many expenses covered as you can.
Like I said, you might my publisher helps to a degree that Mother Earth News Fair people help to a degree, but when I’m tacking on other events that aren’t tourism, then there’s no shame and asking for even just a little bit.
Travel pay, like you know, at least cover my gas maybe make sure you put me up.
Occasionally I’ll get an event where they can’t quite do all that but I understand that it’s really good for book sales or for networking.
So as far as if you’re just traveling to try and sell your stuff and sell your books, those are some of the biggest tips is just watch your money try to find any way you can get any of that I’m compensated because I’m not getting rich off this, but I’m at least getting by.
Brian: Absolutely. And then the book writing process.
Do you enjoy that whole process you like, don’t you? You see yourself doing it again?
Jereme: Yes and no.
Another author, you know, I was jokingly saying, she was working on a manuscript and I was like, it’s fun, isn’t it?
She like yeah, it’s fun when it’s done.
So there is a lot of you know, I wouldn’t do it if it wasn’t something I didn’t reeally like some aspect of. You know, parts of it.
They’re just a lot of fun. The research is what really I think is fun for me but also gets tedious after up I’m like, Okay, I gotta stop at some point.
The writing is fun it’s when you get into the the final stages of proofing and editing which never seems to end, but I’m kind of a perfectionist unfortunately my editors are too.
So that’s almost fun in a way it’s just going through and tightening up some of the text or being like, you know, I think one of the phrases here sometimes is kill your darlings. You got sometimes there’s a big chunk that put a lot of time into and it’s just not working so I cut it out, but I always save it and I basically got a second book out of that. I still had to cut a lot of stuff out but yeah, it’s enjoyable, but there’s just there’s just so much more to it than just writing.
Brian: Makes a lot of sense then it’s funny because your background I was just curious. Being homeschooled and everything, homeschooling tends to be weaved throughout the DIY community.
Is Do It Yourself schooling, how how does that fit into your…..I don’t know, adventurous spirit or your ability to just kind of go out there and try new things, or have you seen that tie into it at all?
Jereme: Yeah, I mean, I always think it would be harder for me to do this if I didn’t have that background.
And I’ve thought about it. I’ve been basically self employed freelancing for most of my career and was 15 years now. And even though there are aspects of having a regular full time job, like insurance and retirement and all that.
For one thing that appealed to me and I do occasionally apply for a job that looks like something I might enjoy, but you know, basically, I think I’m just kind of made to do this kind of thing.
Same as when I was homeschooling I could I get up in the morning, my dad taught high school English, he’d get up really early, I get up with him. Do my work, I’d be done by 11 o’clock sometimes.
The rest of the day I’d be playing in the woods, doing chores and stuff. And then when my school friends came home, they’d been sitting in school all day and I’m like, ready to go.
So it’s the idea of just being able to get up. And even though it can be daunting, sometimes at least I know, Okay, well, here’s a list of what needs to get done.
I’ll get as much done as I can. And then I’ll go off and do my chores and have some fun.
Brian: Yeah. I appreciate you taking time out. It’s a busy weekend and everything taking time out and hanging out with us.
What’s the best way for people to get in touch with you or to get a hold of your books or anything else?
How would you direct them?
Jereme: Well, the easiest thing to do is just to Google my name, because I’m on like multiple different platforms. So my name is my website, which is the name spelled a little different, it’s, J E R E M E, and the website is, Jereme-Zimmerman.com.
So yeah, long enough of a name might be quicker to Google that, but I’m also if you have a business Facebook page, which is different from my personal so that’s, that’s where you can find me on.
I’m on Twitter a little bit.
I don’t use it much, but @JeremeZimm is my Twitter and my Instagram login. And for getting books. I mean, it’s all over Amazon you get if my publisher Chelsea Green Publishing, but my website I sell them through my website and I always sign anything I sell.
So you want a signed copy can do that and 24.95 the jacket price, but I usually sell for a little less.
Brian: Right on. Hey, thanks so much Jereme Zimmerman for being on the Off The Grid Biz Podcast.
Jereme: Yeah, thanks for having me. It’s been great.
Brian’s Closing Thoughts: Really nice guy, lots of fun to sit down and talk to very personable.
Which is interesting because he’s also kind of admitted that he’s somewhat of an introvert, but he got pushed into not only becoming a writer but becoming a public speaker.
You have to get out there in front of people to promote your books and so forth and to get your name out there. And that’s a big piece I think that most people completely miss when they start down the road of writing a book.
We spoke with Andy Brennan in an earlier episode. And it’s impressive to me that these people who would normally consider themselves introverts do so well on a stage.
And he did well on a stage, Jereme was very good on a stage and was able to put these very complicated concepts and make them very simplified. I really liked it.
His willingness to go along and try out these new things and finding other opportunities and being open to other opportunities is really cool, too.
It’s an attitude that I think all successful business owners have, and people that are on their way to becoming successful. You need to realize that those are the good parts of you.
The parts that seek out opportunity, the parts that are willing to go beyond your comfort zone, don’t neglect that side of you because that is what’s going to lead to success for sure.
And also the realistic end where he says that there’s no shame in asking for travel pay. It’s something that’s necessary when you’re moving ahead.
But it’s like he said, You don’t do it just to sell your books, you got to make sure you can at least get by.
Don’t spend more money than is necessary to be able to go out and promote your books in order to make money. Your budget has to match up at the end of the day. Really good advice.
I like how he blends history along with the How To of making beer or making mead or all the other things that he talks about. That’s very much a personality thing.
And for him to allow himself and his personality to spread out, makes his entire brand unique. He doesn’t have to worry about competing against everyone else telling you how to make beer or how to make Mead.
These are all things you can look up online.
What he brings to it is personality background, and something that you just get from anywhere else.
If you have that type of courage in your writing in your speaking in your content development, you’re going to get a good response back and you will delete any sense of competition.
Finally, I love when he said, I guess I’m just kind of made to do this type of thing.
And he was referring back to homeschooling. And he related all that back to being self employed. Tying in directly with the homeschooling, that self reliant attitude is great because we have a podcast here about self reliance, but also it goes to the core of what being an entrepreneur is all about.
And Jereme definitely has that entrepreneurial spirit.
Outro: Join us again on the next Off The Grid Biz Podcast brought to you by the team at BrianJPombo.com, helping successful but overworked entrepreneurs, transform their companies into dream assets.
That’s BrianJPombo.com.
If you or someone you know would like to be a guest on The Off The Grid Biz Podcast, offthegridbiz.com/contact. Those who appear on the show do not necessarily endorse my beliefs, suggestions, or advice or any of the services provided by our sponsor.
Our theme music is Cold Sun by Dell. Our executive producer and head researcher is Sean E Douglas. I’m Brian Pombo and until next time, I wish you peace, freedom, and success.