Let’s talk about pivots.
Not the cute, planned kind.
I’m talking about the messy, “holy crap, what’s happening” kind.
Because that’s exactly what happened with dinacolada.com.
Back in 2007, I was your typical dating coach. (While writing hundreds of online dating profiles and struggling with my own dating life.
(Well, maybe not typical… I had a tendency to tell people when they were being idiots about love. With love, of course.)
The business was solid (in my mind)…
Then something weird happened. I got a new idea!
I’m a fraud! How can anyone trust me as a dating coach when I’m still single?
Then I started doing temporary tattoos and it BLEW UP.
Then I saw face painters with long lines. It was even better.
One hot summer day, at a festival i see giant lines at guess what… A Lemonade stand.
The universe stirred something. Make the sugary drinks and they will come.
And boy did they ever.
Not just “my mom shared it” viral (even though I didn’t really want her to read my dating advice. [YIKES]
We’re talking people waiting in line for an hour to get a drink viral.
There are people at events with NO lines (and I understand because I’ve been that person before too, and it sucks)…
I saw something different where we were serving top world athletes food and drinks for 15+ hours a day. I was actually inspired by the clean (perfect) logos at the Mercedes Benz World Cup Mountain Biking races at Snowshoe WV.
And the LOGOs… They were Iconic. They were simple. They were black and white. And they were beautiful.
It took me years to get to where I finally had a good brand logo.
I was always trying to complicate things.
Complicate work.
Complicate my life.
Complicate my relationships.
And you know what I discovered?
Sometimes you’ve just gotta dumb things down.
Keep things simple.
And keep ‘em coming back for more.
Virality isn’t random.
And success leaves clues.
That’s when it hit me…
I need a better brand.
After that…
I wasn’t just making drinks that went viral.
I had accidentally created a FRAMEWORK for predictable virality.
Not just dating advice.
(Though relationships will always be my first love.)
So here’s what dinacolada.com is about now:
Not just viral drinks.
(Though I’ll never stop selling pickle slushies. They’re too damn good.)
It’s about something bigger:
• The science behind what makes things spread
• The psychology of why people share
• The exact framework for building funnels that convert
All tested, proven, and perfected through years of real-world experiments.
(Where the experiments just happened to be delicious.)
The funny thing?
Each phase of my brand makes perfect sense in hindsight:
Dating Coach: Understanding human psychology
Viral Slushies: Creating shareable content
Marketing Expert: Combining both to help others grow
But I couldn’t have planned it if I tried.
Here’s what I learned:
- The best pivots aren’t planned – they’re discovered
- Your biggest “accidents” can become your greatest assets
- Sometimes the most valuable thing you learn isn’t what you’re teaching
- Data never lies (even when it’s telling you to change everything)
So here we are.
New site.
New focus.
Same Dina.
Just with a clearer understanding of what I actually bring to the table.
Because sometimes the best destination isn’t the one you set out for.
It’s the one you discover when you’re brave enough to follow the evidence.
Even if that means completely rewriting your story.
One viral slushie at a time. ????
So… who’s ready to make some marketing magic?
(Don’t worry – there will still be mocktails or something else…)
Dina
P.S. Yes, I still have all the drink recipes.
No, I won’t stop selling them
Some brand elements are worth keeping forever. ????