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


To Contact Chip:


Email: TheChipChatPodcast@gmail.com


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