The Barefoot Spirit with Michael Houlihan, Co-Founder of Barefoot Wines

Since they sold their popular wine brand Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey have dedicated themselves to helping others achieve the same success without suffering through the same mistakes that they made. They started in a laundry room of a rented farmhouse in the Sonoma County hills and ended up in the boardroom of the world’s largest winery. They were under capitalized and lacked knowledge of their industry. They were forced to become resourceful, develop and utilize soft skills, forge long term relationships with strategic allies, and practice an extended view of customer service.
Because they couldn’t afford commercial advertising, they developed what they called, “Worthy Cause Marketing”. They supported hundreds of small non-profits in the neighborhoods surrounding the stores where their products were sold. They hoped to give the members of those non-profits a social reason to buy their products.
Their Customer Care people were transformed from “complaint resolution” to “customer intel”. Today they help companies develop formal lines of communication between Customer Care and Marketing, R&D, and Production to keep their products and services relevant and competitive. Barefoot is now the #1 Wine Brand in the world.

In this episode we discuss the following:

• How bankruptcy turned into opportunity and led to the creation of Barefoot Wines
• An example of how a great idea came from an unlikely source
• Going the extra mile in supporting nonprofits in your business strategy
• How to motivate employees and structure a customer service organization

Mentioned in the show:

The Barefoot Spirit Audiobook

Entrepreneurial Speaking Reel

SOCAP

Barefoot Wines

To Contact Michael:

www.thebarefootspirit.com

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