Today we’d like to introduce you to Michael Long.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
First thank you to the VoyageRaleigh team for allowing me to share my story with readers local to Raleigh and across various locations, by way of the internet. My story, well, just under a year ago, I moved back home to Raleigh, NC, spending 10+ years in Washington, D.C. What I saw missing in Raleigh was an environment which promotes opportunity for networking and growth within the community. It’s common to be in Washington, DC, and be immediately hit by a stranger with the “What do you do” question. While it can come off as frustrating and often pretentious, I believe there is an opportunity to realize value in fostering such engagement, especially in a high growth period in Raleigh. A pivotal period where networking can foster collaborative conversations and energy to partner for impact.
How would I create an environment? What playbook could I leverage to execute such an environment devoid in Raleigh? The strategy lies with craft cocktails. For fun, me and a few friends would host craft cocktail pop-ups in DC, inviting friends and co-workers to sample our mixology skills and just relax. Hosting these unique events proved we could curate a networking mixer which fosters collaboration and grows networks. We soon realized we are corporate guys by day and mixologist by night. We were extremely slow, but mixologists, nonetheless. While we were not getting paid at the time, we recognized the value of our hobby. For instance, a friend who attended our events, found the inspiration to start a business simply. This was due to the ability to have impactful conversations when meeting people, all through craft cocktails.
Fast forward to January 2023, I was intentional in focusing my passion to execute on the craft cocktail vibe existing in Raleigh. On January 4th, I took the leap and started Shake Sum’n as a legal business in Raleigh. The next day was my birthday, and to my surprise the DC crew came to Raleigh to “pop up” on me and host a legendary pop-up. Staying in an Airbnb downtown Raleigh we networked with a bunch of strangers by pitching them to come and experience our craft cocktail pop-up. The result, wildly successful! Remember, this was all in the first week of January 2023. The conversations and networking at our January pop-up allowed people to share business information, job opportunities, and discuss ideas. Once the end of the night came, I gave a toast to the attendees and shared how Shake Sum’n LLC became an official January 4, 2023. I made sure to affirm the vision of the business is to Shake more than craft cocktails but also impact the community and purpose for other creatives who want to collaborate to pursue and realize their dreams.
That initial event fast-tracked me to a network of others within the Raleigh creative community looking to build businesses and grow. The first month of January, I was booked to host a private event serving craft cocktails. In February, I worked with a friend to leverage a local bar (House of Art) in Raleigh to host a private cocktail pop-up at a much larger scale than Airbnb. Another successful event and from there Shake Sum’n continued to receive bookings and launched monthly craft cocktails pop-up events.
To date, Shake Sum’n events are full-blown elevated lounge experiences designed by my team to showcase our efforts in being intentional about community impact, networking, collaboration, and growth. When you come to our event, you see immediately we are shakin’ more than cocktails. Surface level, you will experience cocktails that touch all five (5) senses through carefully curated and hand-crafted ingredients and natural flavors shaken with love and quality spirits. Looking deeper, you will see the journey of a team who met in January 2023 at a pop-up and committed to launching a start-up that aims to provide opportunities for other small businesses looking to grow, launch, market their product and services with us. We aim to motivate and empower fellow start-ups through craft cocktails and collaboration. We ensure we are shakin’ social impact as part of our journey as well. A key differentiator between our events and others, after every event, we donate a portion of our sales to the local Raleigh non-profit, Saving Adolescent Girls Everywhere (SAGE) Inc. If we are going to shake sum’n, why not shake sum’n which aims to pair craft cocktails with community empowerment.
We are hosting elevated lounge experiences monthly, connecting with different creatives to either be vendors to promote their product/service or local bands to showcase their talents. We plan on expanding to host other events such as a cocktail-making class, selling our mixes, and ways to give back to the local community. We are planning a back-to-school event to support our educators within the local school system as they prepare to support their scholars this academic year. In addition, we are looking to acquire space we can use as our own for more long-term, consistent impact. You can always find us and what is shakin’ next on our linktree, https://linktr.ee/shakesumn.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Whew! Nothing is ever smooth, no matter how much we are fed by looking at others on social media or other places. No matter how much support and resources one may have the road will never be smooth, however it’s the mindset and belief in self we carry to endure while in the journey.
Since starting I have been able to categorize the hurdles faced on the Shake Sum’n journey.
Pricing: Creating a business where I am personally covering all the expenses, I have had a huge learning curve in determining our pricing model for things such as door entry, vendor fees, and competitive drink pricing for crafted cocktails. I also had to learn how to “price” my services for private bookings too. The challenge is that I have been hosting pop-ups for over 2 years just for fun and now I am being intentional in setting prices for a sustainable and impactful business. I want everybody to have access to the experience and it’s never about the money first but about the connections I am afforded with the community and how a true passion with a purpose can be sustainable.
Lack of time: I am one year in an Information Security Director role with a local bank which moved me back to Raleigh, during this time the bank has made two (2) acquisitions making having a work-life balance nearly non-existent. Adding the need for me to find balance with family, day job, Shake Sum’n growth, and for self-care, finding time is tough. There is little time to strategize for my passion in Shake Sum’n; the need to plan, content creation, customer engagement, and executing new ideas. I have to check-in with myself to remember there does not exist a “perfect time”, so doing what I can, when I can, will always be a good time.
Lack of Support/Doubt: The greatest hurdle I had to manage is the moments where support wavered, and doubt blossomed in its place. The intent and vision for Shake Sum’n has and will always be to collaborate and partner for community impact. There have been moments in this journey where collaborating with others on a vision did not go as planned, causing the need for quick pivots, and taking on more, and executing alone. Moments when fellow business launchers project expressions of fear and lack of belief in their journey on me. Transferring their doubt to set in and cause imposter syndrome to arise. To navigate this hurdle, I constantly affirm and reaffirm myself, “I am capable. I belong, success may not be quick, but it will come.” Success is not to be confirmed by anyone else but me, and whatever I do and whatever I offer, let it be with positive vibes only. This approach helps me build a consistent team that shows up and challenges me to think big and pursue the idea. With the pursuit of the big idea, my team offers input and challenges with the purpose.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Ahh, well I am a corporate guy by day and for the past twelve (12) years, I have been working within cybersecurity, learning, creating, and witnessing a lot of amazing things in how cybersecurity is applied within organizations. Most of those 12 years have been supporting the Government both the Department of Defense (DoD), like the US Army, and the Intelligence Community (IC), think one of those three (3) letter agencies, or Federal Civilian Agency, like Department of Treasury. In each of those organizations, I have been able to develop analytical skills to protect their environment and detect malicious activity like nation-state actors (Russia, China, etc.); also known as blue team or the cyber defense segment in cybersecurity. I was able to learn and apply red team techniques, or hacking, for these organizations too. With this new job, I have transitioned out of cybersecurity for the Government and now I am supporting a bank to build their security program as an Information Security Director. This role brought me back to Raleigh and has helped me transition from a technical-focused role to spearheading strategic change for a top 20 bank that continues to grow. The ability to create a vision and execute that vision within Corporate America with autonomy is welcoming and reassuring about my professional journey and growth.
An important lesson I always try to underscore in my journey in the cyber field is to ensure women and men of color know they can work and lead within this field too. Early in my career, I did not see myself being a director, cyber engineer, programmer. My ability to evolve in this space, see the impact and success has helped outside of my professional career. More pointedly, my journey in my career has instilled the confidence required to pursue dreams outside of my typical nine-to-five. It takes time, it will not be easy, but it will be worth it because I can do it. Those are the lessons that easily carry over to Shake Sum’n.
Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
Absolutely, I think my greatest quality that has enabled me on a path towards success and impact, is having a positive mindset. A positive mindset keeps me grounded and propels me forward despite the hurdles. Having this quality as a tool helps to reaffirm and reassure when any task feels daunting. It’s refreshing to see when things go well the smiles on faces and body language, as it shows positivity creates and attracts energy for those that only want to be around positive sources which helps empower impact.
My positive approach continues to be a vital resource in my ability to create and build a powerful network. Starting this venture and collaborating with awesome people who recognize positivity and genuineness which are embedded and for them to carry it forward to be force multipliers for community impact is the epitome of Shake Sum’n!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://linktr.ee/shakesumn4u
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shakesumn4u/
Image Credits
Lyn Spells
Tre Green Sierra
Taylor Alphia Brown
Cayla Green
