Hi,
I’ve known (Wheeler Dealer) Maggie Beeler for years. I took her out to breakfast the first year we met and she was incredibly charming, if a little naive. Still, I wish I had an ounce of her ambition and direction at her age.
Since then, she’s shed the naivete and evolved into a true creative force
We’ve both been in the trenches of this author life long enough to know that success doesn’t come from a single launch or viral post.
It comes from relentless iteration, big ideas, and the willingness to make weird shit that lights us up. So when Maggie and I caught up at Author Nation this year, and she told me she was getting into consumables, I had to ask:
“WTF is a consumable, Maggie?”
So, I had her on the podcast to figure it out, and realized that I had been in consumables for years before even Maggie thought it was cool.
We absolutely talked about that, but the real lesson I took away was that creative brands don’t have to grow by force. They can grow by opening doors that already want to open.
That’s what Maggie did, and it’s what I kept circling back to on the call. Before we get into the takeaways, make sure to check out her new consumables brand on Kickstarter
1. Expansion happens when you stop telling yourself “it has to look like X.”
Most authors think brand expansion means:
merch
character art
special editions
pins
whatever the last successful author did
Maggie didn’t do any of that. TropeTails didn’t come from a marketing plan. It came from something she genuinely does for fun: mixing drinks and hanging out with authors.
The joy came first. The business came second. That’s the part most creators skip.
2. Follow the path of least resistance, which is probably where your enthusiasm already is.
TropeTails didn’t require Maggie to become someone else.
She didn’t reinvent her brand. She didn’t contort her author identity. She didn’t “rebrand” to fit a niche.
She just expanded outward from something she already loved. That’s the direction creative expansion is supposed to go.
If you’re dragging your feet, that’s not expansion. That’s punishment.
This is the whole point of Hapitalist, and our new Frictionless Growth Challenge. We’ll be hosting the first one on December 1st. Sign up for free at frictionlessgrowth.com
3. The best expansions are the ones you don’t overthink.
Maggie didn’t sit down and say “Time to build a parallel CPG ecosystem and leverage adjacent markets.”
No. She made TropeTails because it sounded fun. She made the drink mixes because readers asked for an easier version than going to buy a bunch of ingredients.
Expansion isn’t about being clever. It’s about recognizing when something wants to grow.
4. You don’t need permission to expand. You need curiosity.
I kept saying during the interview how impressed I was that she just… did it.
No drama. No fear. No branding consultant. No committee vote. She followed a thread of curiosity, and that’s the permission slip we ALL forget we have:
If it delights you, you’re allowed to make it. If your audience responds, you’re allowed to expand it.
5. Expansion doesn’t betray your brand. It reveals more of it.
Maggie didn’t “leave” YA fantasy to make TropeTails. She didn’t abandon her books. She didn’t pivot away from fiction. She just added another dimension of herself into the brand.
Your brand is not your genre. Your brand is you.
Maggie simply widened the circle.
And it still feels like her.
Actually, it feels more like her.
The whole time we were talking, I kept thinking: “This is what creative expansion is supposed to feel like.”
Not obligation. Not pressure. Not algorithm-chasing. Not “I guess I should make merch because everyone else is.”
Instead, it should be filled with joy, curiosity, play, and alignment.
Expansion that comes from joy is sustainable. Expansion that comes from pressure burns you out.
That’s the real lesson from the interview.
Not the recipes. Not the launches. Not the mixes. Not even TropeTails itself.
The lesson is that your brand grows wherever you feel most alive.
What do you think? Let us know in the comments.
