We had the good fortune of connecting with Kevin Wilkerso and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Kevin, how has your perspective on work-life balance evolved over time?
I have long felt that keeping a good work/life balance is very important in order to maintain one’s happiness both at and away from your job. If you have too much a focus on work, then you can’t fully enjoy life and if you have too much of a focus on life, it’s hard to focus on work.

This is something I learned early in my career. I was a sportswriter covering a local team. As I concluded my interview with the coach after a game, he invited me out for a beer. I thought this might cross the line of professionalism but we were able to seperate work from play. He had been a prominent professional athlete and taught me a very early lesson in the work/life balance equation. I could still ask him the tough questions and he may or may not answer them, but later we were able go out and enjoy life.

Because this was instilled in me at an early stage, my views on this matter have not really changed. When it’s time to work, I’ll lock in on it like an ostrich burying its head in the sand. When I emerge, then I get away from it. Jimmhy Buffett called this “escapism.” If you can’t escape, then you will be less effective at work. But when it’s time, you do have to return to reality.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I am very grateful for the creative writing talents my father passed along to me and the way he helped me to learn to write as a professional. I also had some very good journalism professors at the University of Alabama and my first boss, Ron Ingram, was huge in teaching me to apply my abilities to a daily newspaper at the Dothan Eagle.

Today, the writing for my lifestyle blog, PubClub.com, is more a creative type of writing than hard news, tho sometimes I do call upon my deadline reporting skills. For example, I posted the first on-line article on Jimmy Buffett’s death after I received a tip from a friend. Others followed in waves but I had the first.

Writing involves passion. I just returned from an international press trip to Croatia and was so inspired by the dramatic beauty of the country that I wrote a dozen stories for PubClub.com. When I was covering sports, my favorite place to be was on the sidelines of a close college football game, especially for the final drive. The media would be allowed to go to the field at intervals in the fourth quarter and I wanted to be down there rather than in the press box. On the field, I could hear, see and even feel the crowd.. I could see the faces of the players, whether they were panicking or calm. I could have a true feel for the emotions of the moment. That’s when writing is easy.

I kind of laugh when I think about it but I get that way when covering something for PubClub, be it a destination, a festival or a bar or restaurant review. I want to be in the moment, to see the passion of the people there and hear the pride of a bartender or chef. I treat it like being on the field for a college football game. And I write a better story because of it.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I enjoy being a tour guide of sorts to people who come visit me. That happened a lot in LA and to a lesser extent to where live now in San Diego.

Beyond Southern California, I also like taking friends to places and events where I have been to many times that they have not, and guiding them aound. I have taken people to the Greek Islands, showing them “the routine” on the islands of Mykonos, Ios and Santorini. I have taken friends to college football games in my hometown of Knoxville for the University of Tennessee and to my alma mater, the University of Alabama.

That’s what PubClub.com does, too. It’s like having a personal tour guide to destinations all over the world. Here’s where I’ve been, here’s the places to go, here’s how to get around, here’s what you need to know about the people and the culture. All you have to do is pick a destination or event and read it.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I would like to credit the former professional athlete and coach who first taught me to “work hard, play hard,” but I’ll keep him anonymous here. He set the tone for me to know when to turn it on and when to turn it off in regards to work/play balance. There have been others, too. Our group of talented writers in the sports department of the Savannah News-Press used to have some pretty competitive basketball games before going to work in which we literally sweated out any thoughts of what we might be covering later.

When I moved to Los Angeles and started my public relations career, it did not take many evenings sitting in traffic on the 405 freeway to learn that I needed to get hired at an agency closer to where I lived at the beach. I did just that, too, and immediately my quality of life increased by a level that any LA commuter can appreciate.

Things really accelerated when a co-worker at that agency, Laz Denes, took me under his wing. He was a former sportswriter himself and helped me to adjust to public relations. He did so with such a cool demeanor that it could not help but rub off on me. I also like to say he “stirred my Caribbean soul” by unleashing a previously hidden lifestyle love of Jimmy Buffett and tropical settings. So, in discovering my “Margaritaville,” there was not a woman to blame. Just blame Laz!

Website: http://www.pubclub.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pubclub/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-wilkerson-3711555/

Twitter: https://x.com/BarBlogger

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pubclubber

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@PubClub

Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@pubclub.com

Threads: https://www.threads.net/@pubclub

PubClub LIVE!: https://www.facebook.com/pubclublive

Image Credits
Nick Saban statue photo credit: Jack Fleming Photography

Nominate Someone: ShoutoutSoCal is built on recommendations and shoutouts from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.