Southern Star, a mid‑sized craft brewery, was fighting for shelf space in an overcrowded market and losing ground. The idea? Turn the fans already drinking the beer into something bigger, advocates, insiders, a secret society. Pins you couldn’t buy, only earn. Custom letters like something pulled from an old fraternal lodge. A private group with sneak peeks at new beers, label art, events, even secret meetups. It worked just not how I imagined. People loved it, wore the pins, shared the stories, but fans aren’t a sales force and life gets in the way. If I did it again, I’d make it easier to join and structured enough to keep momentum, but still keep it messy and human. Because for a moment, it wasn’t a customer list. It was a tribe. And it proved something simple: give people a reason to belong, and they will.