Texas Wine, Leadership and Authenticity

Welcome.

Good morning. We are ladies Kicking Assets and I am Robin Binkley and my co. Co host, Courtney Mueller. We are here today and we have this amazing guest with us, Keely Hubbard. I want to tell you about her and then we're going to do a little housekeeping stuff. Keely is amazing. She is a sales coach and business strategist, but she is also the managing partner of Hubbard Capital Group. She is a syndicator, she's an entrepreneur. But she is really got a lot to share with us today about an agricultural style of investment for, you know, grapes. We're going to talk all about grapes. And so anyway, welcome Keely and Courtney and I are just really thrilled about this. But let's do a little housekeeping first. We want to make sure that you consult with your CPA and your legal team on the things that we talk about today and how that applies in your life. We are not giving you advice. We are just talking about experiences and scenarios that we have run through and what's support for us. And if something pricks your interest, always verify it with those that are in those legal positions. So welcome Keely Courtney. I'm so excited for us to talk with her today. And remember to like and subscribe and share this with your friends and family. The more folks that are listening, the better. So Keely, tell us, I mean, a little bit about how you transitioned into where you are, but I really want to dive into grapes and all that. All that that's good for.

Yes.

Well, first of all, yes.

Thank you for having me. I've been looking forward to this. I think you, you both are so much fun and we really have a lot of great synergies with our passions and everything. So I left corporate in 2017. I got tired of building somebody else's empire. I was a VP of sales. My passion is really sales coaching and helping, helping business owners learn to love sales because most people hate it. But at that time, when I left corporate, I actually had more time to actually think about my life and what I. What I wanted out of it. My dad at the time was getting out of the financial markets. He's professional trader, ran a small hedge fund and he's like, I want to get into real estate. You want to go into business with me? And if you ever get the chance to meet my dad, you'd understand why it was a hell yes. I'm, I'm totally in. So we started down the path of syndication and you know, in the multifamily space. And then my dad was looking at putting a vineyard on the family ranch for just some cash flow, help make the land payment. Similar reasons to why you run cattle. And he mentioned that on a podcast in the real estate space. And this guy named Mason Moreland called us, and he was like, hey, I need to talk to your dad. And long story short, Mason had run his own private vineyard for many, many years. He wanted to expand and fill this huge supply gap of wine, grapes, and the Texas wine industry and needed the business experience and the background that my dad has and wanted my sales and marketing help to build a really cool brand. And that's how we all came together. And so we are building, developing, and operating vineyards in this great state of Texas. And it's been so much fun. In a nutshell, that's how I got to where I'm at.

Super, super cool. Because, you know, you've taken. You know, we're always looking at ways that we can take the assets we have. How can we cash flow that? How can we turn a liability into an asset? So taking that land. And, you know, we do hear about cattle and cotton and, you know, all of your typical things. And in Texas, so the fact that y' all moved it. I mean, who doesn't love wine and money? I mean, and go beautiful.

They go hand in hand.

Yes, they do. And most people don't realize, like, wine is recession proof. There's plenty of articles on it, but they've shown that alcohol sales do not drop in a recession. They maintain and sometimes increase. Yes. Yes, they drink.

My basket.

It specs. When.

When Covid hit, I was like, okay, we need the basics, and we need all this.

I love it.

Well, okay, so that's super cool. So what part of Texas are you guys working in? Because, you know, everybody that's familiar with Texas is familiar with Fredericksburg, and, you.

Know, absolutely the whole country and all of that.

Are y' all in that area?

You know, we supply the grapes that make the wines in Fredericksburg and the hill country. So it's a lot prettier in Fredericksburg and the wine country and kind of Central Texas. But it's not ideal for growing grapes. There's a lot of humidity, which creates fungus. There's weather challenges. So we're out in the high plains ava, which stands for American Viticultural Area. It's designated farmland. It is 260,000 acres of just farmland. There's a lot of cotton farmers out there, but it's super flat. It's very dry, and it's super hot in the summers, which is ideal for growing grapes. So it's about 45 minutes outside of Lubbock.

Okay, I did not know that. Yeah. Okay, so to tell us, you know, let's dig into this.

What is this?

You know, agricultural wine, Grape opportunity? What does this look like?

Yeah, you know, we. The reason we got into it is because our partner has basically taken technology from California and brought it to Texas. So Texas has a huge, booming wine industry. It's about a $20 billion industry here. And most people don't know about that because we don't have any national wines because there's not enough grapes. So the wine demand continues to grow. We even have California wineries opening up tasting rooms here in Texas, and we don't have near enough wine grapes. So Texas is only producing half of what they need. Yeah.

Okay, that was going to be my next question is how what do the grapes here in Texas look like compared to, like, the grapes in California?

It's very similar to central California. The same climate. So we grow a lot of reds here. Reds do very well in this dry Texas. Texas eat, and they also sell for more, so we get a higher price point per ton for. For the red varietals. But there's just this major grape supply shortage. And so Texas wineries are having to truck in grapes from California to try to make enough wine to meet consumer demand. And based on the laws here in Texas, they cannot label it a Texas wine unless 75% of the juice comes from Texas. And if, you know, we're all Texans, Texans don't like that. They want to label stuff Texas wine. And so there is, you know, there's no big player coming in except for us to do this, because Texas is kind of old school. It's about 20 years behind California when it comes to technology. It's, you know, you're going to see in vineyards in Texas a ton of people out there hand labor, hand pruning, hand harvesting. We do everything by machines, so we're able to dramatically cut out the labor. And that's how California runs their bulk wine vineyards.

Fascinating.

Wow.

Like, you know, working smarter and not harder. And so I wonder why it's taken so long for Texas to. To catch up.

There's a lot of just good old boy farmers out there, you know, a lot of them that have had vineyards for, you know, in their family for 30, 40 years. And they kind of done it. They've always done it this way. The bigger reason is the amount of capital it takes to create a mechanized vineyard. So it's about a nine million dollar capitalization per VI block, which is 320 acres for one vineyard, costs about nine million dollars to get it, you know, to get it stood up and producing at a level of full harvest to be able to afford the machines that we use. One of our tractors comes over from France, and it's a $550,000 tractor, but it harvests for us, it prunes, it goes dramatically faster than any hand harvesting crew. So it takes a lot of money to do that. And the wine demand just continues to grow. So this gap continues to widen between the wine grape supply and the demand.

So if you were gonna. If you were going to, let's say, do a syndication where you were to acquire the land and get the grapes to a point that you could harvest them for this, let's say, nine million dollar raise, and you started on this project, how, like, at what level of maturity do the grapes need to be in order to. Is that like a five to seven year window of time? Because I know some of those vines are old. Very old.

Yes.

Yeah, yeah.

You know, vines, these plants naturally want to come out of the ground and grow at full speed, and so they'll want to produce at high levels and grow pretty quickly. But we really hold them back for the first four years because we want to build a really strong root system and a really strong wood stock. Right. And a very strong canopy as well. So we hold them back. We get to full harvest in year five, and we'll be producing about 12 tons per acre on average. And the average Texas vineyard is producing about 2 to 3 tons per acre, so our volume's a lot higher because we change the way we actually trellis the grapes, which allows the vines to hang more fruit than traditional. It's called vertical shoot position. More ag terms. But we only have one canopy, so it's called high cord on wire. And that allows our tractors to go in. And, you know, traditional vineyards, you see, grow like a big hedge, and tractors will get tangled up in a hedge, type of a canopy. So we have one single cordon wire that the fruit grows into, and the vines come in and grow into the middle of the row. And our tractors can come through without getting tangled up and harvest these grapes and prune them. So we do it because of the tractors, and that's how California runs, runs theirs as well.

Wow, that sounds really, really fascinating. I mean, I'd love to go see. See that.

You're welcome anytime.

And. And I really had no idea that y' all were supplying the grapes for The Fredericksburg area, you know, you go down there for a weekend or you go check it out, and you go visit, like, William, Chris, and you know, all the places, and it's like you. You're under the impression they're growing and harvesting.

Yes.

You know. Yeah.

And they do, you know, about 80%. We bring about 80% of the grapes in from the high plains. So they do have some vineyards down. It's just harder. There's a lot of humidity down there, which creates fungus. You have to spray more. It's a challenging environment to grow grapes in. And so do you.

Do you use. Or is it like. Are you using organic methods or are you using, like, chemical fertilizers and pesticides? Or how does. How do you. How does that tie in? Because I know there's a lot of different wines out there.

Yeah, there are. And it's interesting. Right before we started this, I was on the phone with an investor that was interested, and that was one of their questions, too. Are you using, you know, harsh chemicals? And we are not certified organic, but it wouldn't be hard for us to transition to that and get that certification if we needed to, because the majority of things that we spray with are minerals. We do a lot of zinc, magnesium. We're not using the harsh chemicals that you see in a lot of the. The large operation wineries.

Interesting. Yeah, you really should consider that, because I know that's kind of a. Kind of a thing. You know, people are really interested in that. That these days. Well, wonderful. Well, let's talk about some of your coaching. How. How are you? And. And you really specialize in the female arena with. With coaching women entrepreneurs and business owners, and I really love that.

Yes, it's. It's my passion. You know, when I was in corporate, before I became VP of sales, I started in a sales role in my family's franchise, which was involved in the financial education, you know, industry. So I've been talking to people about money for a long time, whether it's them learning how to do it on their own, and now in the investment world. And I was the only female in a sales role in the company that ever made it to the highest rankings, which was called President's Club, as the first woman in President's Club. And I looked around me and I realized, like, why. You know, I was intimidated by it. I had all this head trash in the beginning that I had to work through. Like, this is a man's world. It's finance. Do I really know what I'm talking about? But once I really stepped into that and owned that role, I rose to the very top of the company in a very short amount of time. And what I saw was, right after that, there were so many women that came behind me that, you know, it kind of felt like I was paving the way. And I say that with a lot of humility, but I had to work through my own crap in my own head to get to that place. But once I saw that, I mean, I was the only female executive on the leadership team, and, you know, everybody else was a man, and they were all 10 to 15 years older than me. So I really saw. You know, a lot of people think, man, it's hard being a woman in a man's world. And what I saw and realized was, I love it because it's unique, and I think it's how we look at it. Like, I have so many advantages being a female in this arena. I look at it the same way in syndication. People. Men are more willing to talk to me about their finances than they are to another man, because there's no ego involved. Women are also more willing to talk to me about money than they are to a man. So I think we have a lot of advantages in that space. But I love working with female entrepreneurs and teaching them sales. That is one of my biggest passions.

It's true that your. Your mind is a dangerous place. It can. It can really propel you and. Or it can kind of take you captive. And we've. We've done a lot of work in our psyche.

Yes.

Yeah.

And that was one of my goals that I said at the beginning of the year is to kind of get rid of those limiting beliefs. And, you know, my word for the year is breakthrough and to kind of break through any of the, you know, limitations or anything. And when I first stepped into this space, I kind of went through that same thing. You know, I was asked to sit on a board with some really incredible people, and I thought, you know, I don't. I don't have a financial degree. You know, I haven't worked professionally in this space. Do I deserve to be, you know, on that panel of awesome people? And then I thought, you know, I'm.

Just gonna do it. And.

And then I realized that, you know, what? My. My knowledge is solid. You know, my background is solid, and. And where I'm coming from it. But it's t. It took me a little bit to get there and to feel comfortable in what I do know and what I'm bringing to the table and the knowledge that I was sharing with others. So it crazy what your mind can do to you. It is.

And I had a coach that I brought him all my head trash. I was like, well, here's all the reasons why this is going to be really hard for me. Because I had goals of being at the top of the company, and I knew I was going to need some help. And it's like, I'm a woman, you know, this is a man's world. And he's just sitting there smiling at me. I'm dumping all of my ridiculous head trash. I'm like, and the men that come in here are more than twice my age.

Created on your own. Some of it probably wasn't even true. It's just stuff that. And assumptions we make.

Yeah, it wasn't. And I, you know, I had to work through that. And I was like, huh? He was like, is that really true, though? He's like, you need to get over that. He's like, stop it. I'm not going to walk you through this big therapy session. He's like, stop. There's people out there that need your help, and you're, you know, you're holding back your ability to help them because you're uncomfortable. He's like, that's selfish. Get out of your own way. And he was, you know, he's a very direct coach, which is what I like. But that's what really helped me move past that and that's where my career took off, was once I stepped into it, I owned it, that I deserve to be here.

Well, what does your coaching program look like? Like, say I was like, keely, I. I need to be coached. What does that entail?

You know, it's different for everybody, so it depends on, you know, what it is that you're trying to tackle. My specialty is helping people sell more. So whether that means, you know, building better. Better sales processes, better talk tracks. Most of the people that I work with want to be excited about sales in their business, but they don't like it. You know, somebody schedules a new call with them, they have a new potential client and they should be thrilled about it, but they have this, like, angst around it. Now I have to go sell, and they don't like it. I'm like, man, it's so much. We can change our frame of mind around it and get really intentional, strategic and authentic talk tracks and communication that help us guide a conversation. I love seeing people learn to love sales. The aha moment of, wow, this is like, okay, I can do this. And I can still be myself. And I don't ever have to be the, the cringy characteristics that I hate about salespeople. So it's different for everybody. You know, I do stuff in the capital raising space. I've worked with realtors, interior designers, attorneys, people that own financial education, cybersecurity. I've done it all. And it doesn't matter what you're selling. It all comes down to communication and how to learn people and what they're thinking, what they're thinking, but they're not telling you and how to have disarmingly honest conversations. Because I really feel like that's, that's where people come together and do business together, is when you can clear all the stuff, all the fog and let's have a real conversation about what's not working and see if I can help. And if I can help, I'll let you know that and we'll, you know, we'll figure out what that looks like together. But it's just a much more authentic approach to sales because I had to figure that out on my own. I had a lot of bad sales trainers when I started with the franchise. They were at corporate and I was like, man, I am not saying that stuff. And it was very ego driven. It was very cringy. It was at a time where more reviews, like Yelp reviews and Google reviews were becoming a lot more, you know, prevalent. And I'm like, man, this could kill your business just from that. A bad experience with a sales guy, there's no way I'm doing that. So I figured out I got to learn this on my own. And I got really good at learning people and having good conversations with them.

That's what's so important is, you know, that I think the authenticity and really connecting with people. You know, I've gone to a couple of different sales type trainings and I, it just felt like that, you know, used car salesman, you know, type tactics. And I don't, I don't like the tactics. I don't like that stuff. You know, I, I talk to people, you know, I just, I think just caring, you know, being authentic and caring and showing people that you care go so much further than some of these other things that just don't feel so good.

This stuff doesn't work. That's the problem is people. There's so many sales trainers out there that are still teaching sales from like 1970s. And it does feel like used car people don't buy because you have this amazing, tricky one liner that you pull on Them, and all of a sudden they're throwing money at you. It's like, oh, they said the thing that manipulated me into buying doesn't exist. There's no, you know, all these phrases always be closing. I'm like, there's no one liner that exists that you're going to say that all of a sudden is going to close a deal. The close happens organically because you've qualified hard. I always say, qualify hard. And the close is easy. And the qualifying is just a scavenger hunt. It's. Let me understand, does this person have a compelling reason to do business with me? What's not working in right now? Where do they want to be and how bad do they want to get there?

Yes.

At 100%? Yes. Either I have what they need and I'm solving a problem for them. And we, you know, mesh well together and we work well together. I don't want to feel like I gave somebody this tricky one liner and they're like, yep, okay. And then they later like, you know what? That wasn't what I needed. Or, you know, I don't want that situation. That's not good for anybody.

Yeah. People buy in spite of. In spite of sales pressure, in spite of these manipulative sales tactics, not because of it. And the problem is that a few people do. And so it trains these bad behaving salespeople to think that it works. And it's. I just. I hated that approach. So I found a much better way to do it. And I broke records in the company doing it. And I taught. You know, I took once I took that methodology that I developed myself and I took it to corporate. And that was a terrifying moment for me. When they. My dad sold the franchise. He wanted to move on and, you know, do other things. And they said, can you come to corporate and teach what you've done? Because we were in the smallest market and I had the highest revenue per lead that came in the door. And so it made all the other franchises look like they were just wasting money and that, can you come teach this? And I was terrified. I'm like, I know it works for me. I don't know if it's gonna work for everybody else. But I was able to take the company from 40 million and it wasn't just me. Right. There's a lot of other teams involved, marketing and things. But we grew it from 40 million to 220 million in less than four years. In a way that people had a good experience when they came in. We weren't hard pressure selling people anymore. And so I'm very proud of that. But it proved to me I can teach what I've done and anybody can learn. It doesn't matter what your personality is. You can be yourself in sales and you can be very successful and actually look forward to sales calls instead of dreading them.

That's amazing. That's really something to be proud of.

It was a blessing. It was terrifying. It's always. It's always.

Those skills and rotate it into what you're doing now, and. And that's why that has been so successful and great.

So I'm very grateful for the journey.

Oh, absolutely, absolutely. You know, and I think too, about. I mean, as you were kind of talking, I was sitting here in my mind thinking about, you know, Courtney, like you, a number of the sales trainings that I've. I've been to. And, you know, you're wanting to really, or at least we're taught, let me just say, to kind of put your own agenda out of the way and really connect with folks and get to know who they are. But at the end of the day, you're still taught, if you will, to circle back around to asking the question, is there any reason why this XYZ might not work for you? And I have found, at least for me, that that sometimes is not a real comfortable question, really, because that to me brings back in then your agenda. You know, if you're meeting with a new individual because they are interested in a project that you're working on or syndicating on, you know, you. You definitely want to get to know them and what their needs are, what. What guidance have they been given from their cpa? Are they looking for a place to park money? Are they looking for passive income? Are they looking for, you know, something that works better from a tax standpoint? And. And if you know what you have doesn't meet that, then pass them on to one of your partners in the industry that might have something that better suits them. Y. But being new to syndication, I think that the success that I've had. And Courtney, you can probably resonate this too, is just being authentic, you know, and. And it's really okay to kind of flub when you say some things because you don't know all the things. And you have to reach out to people smarter than you to maybe answer some of the questions that they might have. But just having those relationships, it's more than just, let's have a zoom. It's, you know, if you're able to, can we go to dinner or, you know, when I'm in wherever, can we connect and maybe have a coffee or a lunch and just get to know the character of the individual? The character is so much more important than the deal, you know, because that's what you're. You're investing in the relationship. I mean, yes, the deal. But I'm just saying, as I've matured and what I've done as a real estate entrepreneur and instanticator, that's really more of what I see and what I hold value to and where those hurts come into play when you realize people are not really what you thought. They portray something, but they're not really what you thought. And so that, you know, those that goes into business, you know, so I've just kind of learned at least my. For me, and that's not for everybody, but the, the character in the relationship is so important, you know, what do you really stand for? Who are. What are you about?

Yeah, it really is, I think, not just with partners, but especially with your investors as well. And the only way you can figure that out is, like you said, by getting to know them. And the question that you. You mentioned about, you know, do you see any reason why this wouldn't, you know, work for you? Is a very leading question. It's a setup question, is what I call it. You're exactly right that people. If you feel angst asking in it, it's because people feel angst receiving it, because most salespeople try to corner you and get you to answer yes to as many questions as possible. And so consumers have. Their senses are so much more heightened these days where they're always looking for the impending close. They're waiting for it. So anything that feels like it, their walls start to go up. And one of my favorite questions to ask at the end of a conversation after we've. I've qualified them from, you know, they have a compelling reason and it's urgent enough that they want to fix it. And I qualify them financially and I understand how they make decisions. Before I ever talk about how I can help them in real estate, my question is, do you want my help? That. And, and they. Most the time they say yes. What does that look like? But it gives me permission to then talk about, you know, the investments and how they're structured and how I think I can help them. But it's not a leading. They don't feel like I'm trying to close them.

Right. No, I love that. That's a really helpful to hear that because you can apply that in just about anywhere, if someone's giving you permission to get into that space, then you kind of have that freedom to talk about whatever that might be that you're working on or. Yes, trying to provide information on, you know.

Wow, great.

Great nugget right there. I'm gonna write that down.

Do you want my help?

I need your help.

I need a coach.

So, you know, we're kind of nearing our time, but, Keely, tell us. Tell our listeners and our viewers how they can get in touch with you and, you know, all your contact information so we can make sure we. We really promote that.

Yeah, and I certainly appreciate that. We actually just transitioned one of our vineyard offerings over to a 506C, so we're able to talk about it more now. But it's the second vineyard block, and we're about to round out the. The raise for that, so we're excited about that. But you can find out more just go to investinvines.com and for the coaching side, if you just want to connect with me, you know, personally, I love meeting new people. You can find me on any social media platform or my personal websites. My first and last name. Keely Hubbard dot com.

Yes.

Awesome.

I love that. Investinvines.com I do, too.

That's catchy.

No, I'm. I didn't mean to interrupt you. I. I love different, you know, alternative investment options. This is such a really cool, different thing. And I'm gonna have to dig into that and really go jump on your website and kind of dig around into the option, the advantages and how. How that affects and how. How I can make that work with the other investments that I'm already in.

Yeah, I love that.

Yeah, there's. There's so much fun around, you know, centered around the vineyards. And so I'm. I'll have a new landing page going up soon that will give a lot more information on the 506C offering, but.

Oh, that'd be great. So, you know, I will. I will share this for all of our listeners out there that I did. Go scroll around on the vineyard page, and you have a great questions and nuggets for people to look at. You know, I was interested, and so others will be, too, just, you know, as, you know, owning a vineyard but also having limited partners, how you can capture, you know, just even cost segregation for, you know, four years or four and a half years, whatever it said. And then you had a lot of other really great information on there. So I really do like how. How that's set up and very user friendly. So thank you. Encourage folks to go there and just, you know, pay attention to that. That's really helpful. Well, thank you so much for your time and the information you've shared and, you know, powerful information on coaching and strategies. And even though you. You specialize with women, it's certainly applicable to men. And I'm certain you can help direct our. Our men to coaches in the arena. And the vineyard. Information is really great. And I love you've currently got a 506C out there that, that others can get information on too, as another opportunity.

Thank you. It's funny, I actually have quite a few men clients, especially in the world. Yeah. Okay. A lot of women, but I got a lot of men in there too.

Okay, so you do work with men too. Okay, that's good to know. Yeah, good.

Yeah, it's been interesting. You know, I. When I was in, when I was VP of sales, it was, you know, at a team of 600 and probably 550 at them were men. So I'm very used to working with men, especially in a sales world, but I do love, especially love working with women.

Yes, yes, we understand that. Well, have an amazing day. We've got all the contact information for Keely and remember to like and subscribe to Ladies Kicking Assets. And we are Robin Binkley and Courtney Moeller. And we are signing off with Keely Hubbard. And so have a powerful day. Thank you.