You Can Do It If You Work Really Hard with Entrepreneur Elizabeth Hill

The star of the legal system and the legal industry in Lubbock, Texas, and actually all over Texas, Elizabeth Hill. Thank you, Elizabeth, for sharing time with us and coming back. I want to hear about this vineyard and this entrepreneurial, you know, the vineyard and the restaurant. And you're pretty much in the startup, early, early days of that. And what happened to you when you opened the restaurant?

Yes. So the name of our business is Berkeley Hill. Berkeley's a name that we created for my husband's grandfather's Burkinetti Lee. But we had been opened in a little bitty small town near here that my husband grew up in called Loveland. But we decided to move to Lubbock. And Lubbock's not an incredibly large city, but it is growing. And we have about 2, 250,000 and growing quickly. And so we decided to move into downtown Lubbock. And it took a really long time to renovate this beautiful old building. It was a Crest building, which was the old Crest department store. They built these beautifully. Just incredible, architecturally stunning buildings throughout the United States that a lot of people have now repurposed, including us. And after renovations, we finally got opened on about March 4th of 2020. And. And we all know what happened. In mid March, the nation started shutting down. And so on March 20, I believe it was, we got notice that we needed to shut down. And so it was pretty tough. We knew that we could do to go, but we had no system to do to go. We didn't even have to go containers. And so we had to adapt really fast. And we did. And it was also tough because we were still trying to get our name out there as place that you could actually get food, because so many wineries were just serving wine. And what happened for us is that saved us this year because we qualified as a restaurant and we were able to be open more than other wineries. In fact, there was a couple of months where we were one of the only wineries in the state open.

Wow. And so you're starting. You say your husband has got some experience in the wine business. How about the restaurant business?

Neither one of us. I mean, I was a server in college way back when, you know, a long time ago, I worked at an Italian restaurant here. But neither one of us had much experience. His sister is a classically trained chef in San Francisco, so we relied on her for guidance. And, um. But really, the restaurant part of it was an evolution. We kind of didn't plan it. We just knew that we enjoyed wine with food. So we started with charcuterie boards. And then from there, we went to pizzas. And when I say pizza, I mean in house dough made pizzas that, you know, have incredible ingredients on them and are delicious and gourmet. And it went from there. We have paninis, and on Valentine's Day, we will have filet and pork chop and all kinds of incredible dishes. And so it's just been an evolution, and it's one that we are so grateful that we just felt like it was meant to be in 2020, because never did we ever think that we would qualify as a restaurant. And under the Texas rules, we did.

Yeah. Congratulations.

Thank you.

It seemed like one of the things that you've dealt with is small businesses and their challenges and their issues and what are the kind of things that now you get a chance to experience it firsthand. Because a lot of those things come because you get hit with things you did not anticipate. And I've always felt if you, you know, there's a fine line, you don't want to over worry about what could go wrong, because, let's face it, there's millions of things that could go wrong. And if you start thinking about. It's like thinking about my strengths and weaknesses. If we really started examining our weaknesses, we'd be here forever, you know, and so it's much better to focus on the strengths and allow the weaknesses to improve over time to try and keep up as you expand your strengths, you know, but as you. What are the kinds of things you've seen happen to small businesses, entrepreneurs, that can be avoided and can the danger, the possibility that can be minimized?

Well, you know, I know I am, and you probably are, too, one of those people that never really sits still and are constantly thinking about how to expand on those strengths and how to work on those weaknesses. And that's the. The way it's been for us this entire year. And so when other wineries were not thinking about food, we were thinking about incorporating food. And when we got shut down, you know, we wanted to be sure that we had food to go. And so we did lots of things continually to try to improve and expand business. We just did not sit still. And, you know, I empathize because I can see how it happens with these bars and restaurants that have closed down this year and not been able to survive it. It's been tough. But one thing that we were committed to doing is following all the precautions and that did serve us well and staying on the good side of tabc, which is our alcoholic Beverage Commission here who is enforcing the orders for precautions for Covid. And so, you know, we just tried to do the best job we could while providing a safe, safe place that was following precautions. And I think that that really did help us a great deal.

Yeah. And how. I just noticed here, I'm looking at your backlog. You got the. You're also the 2016 recipient of the Gold Award, which is the graduate, top graduate from the last decade from Texas Tech. Wow, you got a lot of people mad at you now.

Well, that was such a privilege. I got to take my kids with me, and they saw me get that award. I went to Fort Worth to get the award, and it was really a special moment. But I believe that the reason I got that is because I was willing to kind of stick my neck out there and try hard on some appellate cases like the one I mentioned to you. The dean of the law school happened to be in Austin that day and came and watched me argue, and it was such a special moment to see that support. I love Texas Tech University. I have three degrees from there, and so I just love my school, and that's been a really wonderful relationship to continue as an alumni.

And how does. How you. How do you deal with the challenges from people who say, you know, you're going overboard with the kids and the outside? You know, it's one thing to have. It's. It's. It's nice for you to have some education and to get a job and maybe even be a lawyer, you know, be an attorney and Wonderful. But let's not go overboard, Elizabeth. You know, let's. Let's keep the priorities. Is there. Do you hear a lot of. You know, because I bring this up because a lot of the people who listen to us are females, and a lot of them are single moms, and they hear it, you know, you know, everybody successful hears it, but, you know, they really kind of hear it. And you're. You're vulnerable when you're a female. Speak to the female point of view, which I can't do, but, you know, the mentality of the matriarchal role and responsibility. Primary caretaker on a daily, hour by hour, you know, the. Their personal concerns and all. Not breadwinner, typically, but going in there and dealing with that and then moving to where you want to do more. There's nothing. We all know there's nothing wrong with it, but not everybody understands that. You know, they don't understand because their life is so disorganized and everything. They don't understand how you could get it done, you know.

Sure. Yeah. And I think I have a lot of empathy for that. I, right before I went to law school, I was a stay at home mom. I did not have an income. I had been a counselor part time for a while, but at the point that I decided to go to law school, I had not worked for several years. And I did have some people make some comments that looking back on it now, I were really condescending about me going to law school and did I understand fully what I was getting into and that it's really hard, Elizabeth, to go to law school. And so, you know, for me, and.

If I could add something, you probably, you. They were probably right. You didn't know what you're getting. None of us ever know what we're getting into, you know.

Yeah. It's impossible to understand or comprehend what it's like.

Yeah.

But I knew I was up for the challenge. I knew that it was going to be hard and I knew that I could do it if I worked really hard. And, you know, my perspective was I wanted to make my children proud, but I also wanted to provide for them and to provide for my family as a woman. And that's always been really important to me. And so now, this many years later, I am the breadwinner. And part of that is because we're building a new business that, you know, you're in the early stages. Of course, building a restaurant in the middle of pandemic is going to be tough, but, you know, for me, I felt like it was a part of how I raised my children. And for my oldest two are girls. And I wanted them to see that, hey, you can do whatever you want to do in life and you can be a mom and an attorney and a business owner if you'd like to be. And the oldest right now is working with us at the winery and restaurant. And she's actually a singer songwriter, so she's aspiring to great things. Another thing that's been tough this past year, but she really enjoys it.

Yeah. And so you had that thing where you came down to the point the go decision was you felt like, yeah, it's going to be tough, but I know I can do it if I work really hard. That's really a point that you've got to reach in all kinds of decisions that challenge you and you question yourself, am I up to this? Was there times in your early practice, you know, when you started your early practice, that's where you really started your entrepreneurial trip. The things you read into there and how you dealt with, with that. Was there a big clientele you carried away from the other firm with you?

Well, there, there was some clientele and you know, luckily for attorneys, we have a fiduciary duty and a close relationship with our clients. And so I'm able to take my clients with me if they choose to come with me. And it's not, you know, it's not violating any competition laws, non compete contracts or anything like that. And so I, yes, it was challenging. I had to learn how to run a law practice and I early on made some mistakes, but just kept going and made sure that I learned from those of like, hey, let's not do that again. And like what were, what were what, what were those?

Because you're a smart person, you're the, you're dad gum gold graduate of the last decade from Texas Tech. And here you are, you apprentice, more or less go to work for a big firm, you see how they do things and now you, dadgummit, you get out on your own and you start.

Doing.

Some things that were not the best. How does this happen? Elizabeth, I thought you're the gold decade.

Well, I think that sometimes whenever we are so eager and determined and driven that we will take on things in a bit too much of a generous manner. And for example, there were some cases that I should have gotten some good retainers on beforehand. And while I did, I haven't gotten really terribly burned by not getting paid. There were some that, you know, had to really pay out over time. And as a solo business owner where my entire income is based on what I bring in, that might not have been the best situation for me and for my family. And so I did learn from that. And I found mentors that had gone before me and talked to them, really picked their brains about what they found worked for them. And you know, I just kept at it. I just made sure that I never gave up and I learned the type of work that I do best at. Although I am willing to, you know, accept a challenge and try something that while, you know, I should have some experience doing, but might be a little bit of a novel area of the law, which happens a lot, you know, and so be willing to accept a challenge like that. But I've learned over the past four years how to do that in the best way for both me and my clients.

Yeah, and I appreciate you mentioning mentors. The role of mentors is a huge thing that people wonder about. They're not sure how to get in. They wish they had them. But there are things you can do once you understand, because it's very important that you have wise advisors that you can go to and if nothing else other than bad ideas around and, you know, hear how they sound out loud to someone who, you know will give you good feedback. So thanks so much, Elizabeth.