Scaling One Hope Wine from $10k to GIVING BACK $11M with Tiffany Wojtkiewicz

Sometimes it's hard, especially in the beginning, to say, oh, I mean, of course I want to give back, but my God, my margins are whatever. But we don't think of the big picture of no. By attaching this, you're probably going to make it a whole lot easier to sell because your messaging is going to, like, power that whole thing. And that's truly. When people say one hope, they think of giving back. Like, I think before they even think of wine.

Yes, we give 10%.

That's crazy.

Of sales to our customers. Cause of choice. So we just hit $11 million donated. We are so excited about.

That's insane.

$11 million donated, but to over 40,000 nonprofits, every single dollar makes a difference. Every single event that you do with one hope, even if you're just sharing about what your organization does and spreading awareness about what your organization does, is really powerful. And doing it around a glass of wine that you can feel good about. Why not try?

Tiffany, welcome to the earn your happy podcast. Thank you for coming on.

Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to be here.

Well, this is so exciting. I feel like we are missing wine, though, for sure. Most of our interactions include wine.

When I've seen you, next time I'm gonna show up with a glass of bubbles for us.

Yeah. I was like, you know, should I schedule her on a Monday afternoon or should she be more like a Thursday afternoon or Friday?

Yeah, next time.

Next time we'll think that through a lot more. Yes. Okay, so. So we've already hinted to what you do a little bit and who you are. Can you give us a little bit of backstory and tell us what you do?

Of course. So I am the current president and co founder of One Hope Wine, and I got into the wine industry right out of college. I graduated from University of Arizona. I was in the business school there, and I knew I wanted to do sales and marketing, so I went to the career fair because I didn't really know how to get a job. I just knew I wanted a job. The day college ended, like, I was working. That was my jam. So I interviewed with a bunch of companies like Enterprise rental company, and one of those companies was Gallowing company. And I just thought, you know what? Why not get into an industry that I thought was going to be really fun? I didn't know anything about wine at the time.

Like, nothing.

I knew nothing about wine. Like, I drink wine in Arizona from a bag floating down a river.

And you slapped it first.

Exactly, exactly. That's what I was. That's what I. That's what I knew about wine. But, you know, my parents really inspired me. They came from sales. Both had really extensive sales backgrounds, but they were in office products. So I just thought, this is going to be a lot more fun than paperclips. It has to be. And they encouraged me as well, just because Galo had such a wonderful training and developing program for entry level sales positions. And so I started right away, right here, actually, out of Newport beach was my first territory.

Oh, wow. So you moved here away from the fam or.

Well, I. I was in school in University of Arizona. I'm from here, actually. So I got to move back right.

Where I was, which is great.

It was amazing. They gave me a really great territory. I was like, okay, I am sold on this. Like, I am ready to be romanced. I'm ready to learn about wine. And they said, all right, it's time for you to start. It's your first day. Meet me at Ralph's at 4:30am and we're going to backstock some wine and, like, unload back rooms. Okay. So, like, odds. I was like, oh, wow. I didn't think we were just going to get right into this, but it was a really interesting learning experience, just because you really learn the way consumers buy wine when you're merchandising throughout a grocery store, which was my first position with them. So you learn that people, you know, buy wine in different departments of the grocery store. Like, you want to get your wine displayed by the flowers, by the meat department, all of those things. You're kind of helping every single manager in the store to try to earn favor, to try to get your wine outside of the department where it can be seen. And so it was really during that time, gosh, in 2005, where I saw brands like Campbell Soup, Yoplait, yogurt come out with national breast cancer awareness campaigns for the month of October. So we saw, like, you'll play yogurt turn pink, where you sent in that little foil lid, and you saw Campbell's soup come out with the pink and white can instead of the red and white can. And consumers responded really well to it. They loved that those brands gave back. They love that they supported women with breast cancer. And we just kind of thought the co founders and myself, like, November 1st. Why did that all go away? Yeah, so we thought it was sort of a little bit gimmicky, that they only did it one month out of the year. And we thought that we wanted to start Something where giving back was really built in within the fabric of the company from the start. 365 days a year, more significant than 1% of profits. So that's kind of where one hope was born at that time. Jake Clover Dance, who's our CEO, likes to say that he did what a lot of people do with good ideas, which is nothing. So it took him a while, I think, to gather the group and he actually had a good friend at the time. Several months after we've been talking about it, get diagnosed with leukemia and lymphoma at 23, Harris friend Morgan, and after he visited her through going through her first round of chemo, he came back and said, okay, guys, we're going to do this. Like we're incorporating, we're starting. And we left Gallo and the rest is history.

So were you. How did you guys all meet?

We met at Gallo. We didn't all know each other. Okay, well, so I would say Jake was kind of the. There's six or seven, there's six of us. And so he was sort of the. The connector. And I worked with him. I competed with him as a sales rep. And then we also competed when we were district managers, when I had the Orange county team and he had the LA team. So we just kind of always had friendly competition. Kind of became fast friends and that's how I knew him. And then I met the rest of the group. I knew a few of them, but we really became close, like after. After we kind of just dug in and. And started it up. So there's three. Three of us gals and three guys. So we're kind of co ed. Co founders.

That's so. I mean, that's a lot of co founders from the beginning especially. I have so many questions around that too. Let's talk about what that idea first looked like when you're getting it rolling. Because it's like, okay, you're coming from another company. You guys probably feel like you have a lot of different experience, but probably a lot of gaps too, I'm guessing. So tell me about what some of those original conversations of like, hey, should we do this?

Like, yep. So I was 24, relatively young. That's baby girl. We were all very young. We were all in our early 20s. And I think the nicest thing about when you work for the largest winery in the world, one out of every three bottles of wine drink in the world is a gala product.

Wow.

It really gives you the confidence to think that you could do anything when you have those kind of Resources behind you. So we were really confident, and I. And just really naive. I think if we ever would have known how challenging it truly was, we might not have started. So I think that was really, like, on our side. Being young and. And having that confidence was really a blessing, I think, for sure. And we started having our first meetings, and it was sort of like there were definitely gaps, but I think we were pretty confident. And that helped us into all of the. Just jumping in, getting started, and then just failing and failing and learning. And learning. I was kind of named. We kind of remember this. We had our first meeting and we kind of just all wrote down on a piece of paper what each of us would head up. I haven't thought about this in so long. And I got voted to be head of sales.

Okay.

That was my thing again. I was, you know, into that. One of us was like, you know, I'll be the CEO, all kind of handle the finances. Jake was the CEO, and we all did sales. But we kind of had a specialty where we're really like, I'm going to go to bed and wake up thinking about this all day long. So this part of the business was covered because, again, it was such a unique thing to start with. So many co founders.

Yeah.

But it also, of course, it has its challenges as well. So, yeah, that's kind of how we got started. We bottled up 168 cases of wine from a custom Crush facility in Sonoma.

Okay.

We drove it down in a U Haul. We parked it in a storage unit in Newport beach, and we met there every Monday. Would put the wine in the trunks of our cars and hit the market and just sell to anyone that would listen. So, like, mom and pop, wine shops, restaurateurs, you know, a lot of their first question was like, great, I'll carry you. I'll put you on the menu by the glass. Like, who's your distributor? And I was like, oh, I'm it. I'll go get it. I have it. I have it right in my car. I'll bring it in. I have the chardonnay. You can start selling it tomorrow. And we're good. So we just started off that way. Very, very bootstrapped. We started the business with $10,000 and 168 cases of wine. Wow. And six people to feed. Yeah.

Did you all have other jobs during that time, or how are you guys paying the bills?

At that point, we had left and really just jumped in and done it full time. So we very quickly knew we needed to raise capital.

Yeah.

It's a very capital intensive business. So we're still, we're still raising money. We're still in a growth mode, really, 17 years later. So it's just, it's a really interesting industry because it's very unique to start your own winery and wine company when you're not part of a generational family.

Yeah.

And not only are we not a part of the same family, we're friends and from different families who didn't come from the wine industry. So, yeah, it really, you know, thanks to our first angel investor who came on board right when we started in 2007, that kind of catapulted us. And then we've been kind of, like I said, growing and raising capital and expanding to different business units to accomplish our vision ever since. So we're kind of, even though it's been 17 years, always evolving, always changing, very steadfast and stubborn about what our vision is, but we're flexible on how to accomplish it. Especially after going through things like a pandemic, when most of your business is like in home wine tastings, for example, like we were at the time and, you know, we really kind of embraced the pivot to just make sure that we can keep making the impact that we want to make.

So first you were like, mom paw shops. You're like, okay, we're gonna do this. And then you. When did you realize that you wanted to create your own platform and tell me about that.

Yes. So we. It took me about six years to get national distribution in the three tier system, which is normally kind of how you build a wine brand, especially what.

A three tier system is.

So me, as the wine supplier would sell to a distributor who sells wine, beer, liquor distributors, like the Southern wine and spirits of the world. And then that distributor sells to the restaurant or the retailer, and then that restaurant or retailer resells it then to us as consumers.

So that can't sell direct. In the alcohol industry, you literally have to go through.

You did have to. So when we first started One Hope in 2007, I think we could legally ship to five states direct to consumer. Now we're open in 46.

Wow.

So the landscape of that has really changed. And I mean, gosh, when we started in 2007, if you think about it, not much had changed since. Since the three distribution industry, since Prohibition was lifted.

Wow.

So it's a very, in some ways a very traditional, very archaic kind of industry.

Yeah.

I mean, I love it, but I'm just. It takes us. It takes a while to, to Create change sometimes. And now that we can do that, it's still, you know, I think most people still love to get their wine in stores and restaurants, things like that, but there's really room for other distribution channels. People love to go to wineries like ours and join the wine club. And we can ship wine like I said, in 46 states now. So we started off in grocery stores, restaurants, hotels, resorts, things like that. And we still are today in resorts and restaurants. We're really focused on, on premise where you can buy the wine by the glass, taste their wine and you can come to our website and figure out more about what we're doing and how to purchase it. So we scroll down, kind of stay away from retail. But in the beginning that's, that's really all we had was the wholesale three tier distribution. And so slowly over time we got our first e commerce website. A couple years in we started getting our state compliance to be able to ship direct to consumer. Cause we knew that the industry was going that way. Just like everything else I was shopping was from Amazon, fashion, home stuff, everything else I buy online, I knew I'd be able to buy one online eventually. It just kind of, it's taken a while and for a brand our size, like it's really important for us to tell our story directly, to own the customer data, to be able to share the impact that we're making our wine notes, like all of our wine is really coming direct from our winery to you. And so kind of skipping, you know, those, those layers have just been beneficial because we're not huge and we don't have the brand awareness of a Kendall Jackson, for example. So it's been kind of the right way to reach our customers. So I'm glad we've evolved our distribution platform to this. And then I think what we realized along the way is we got our website up. We started having family members, volunteers kind of come to us and say like tiff, I want to sell your wine and I would love to be able to fundraise locally. And if you pay me a commission for it, I would love that too. So that's kind of where we started our first affiliate program about 10 years ago. And that's when we really kind of connected the dots for between democratizing the Napa Valley wine tasting experience in people's homes. So we have our wine reps that are really out there doing in home wine tastings, sharing one hope, sharing our story and fundraising locally in their communities. And that's been really the, the best and most Effective way for us to build our wine club is actually through that community and through word of mouth. And that really works for us versus, again, kind of sitting on a retail chef shelf collecting dust. Unless I was standing there in Costco like I used to, next to every display I had in Southern California and sharing it with people, it was. It's just a hard way to get your product out there when you're. Haven't been around for 50 plus years in our industry at least.

Yeah. It's so genius when you, when you think about, it's, you're. You're pairing people who want to do good because you lead with that. With One Hope, which I love, we're going to chat about some of the impact you guys have made, but being able to empower people to be like, hey, I want to get behind something that feels really good. And also, there's not a whole lot easier than saying, come over to my house. We're going to sample some wine. So it's something people already are excited about and want to do and learn about wine. And then to attach it to something that feels really good, it's just like this. It makes so much sense. But also to people who've done, you know, been in the wine industry for years, it probably didn't make sense. They're like, what are you going to do? Like, what are you thinking?

Yeah. They're like, no.

What made you guys feel like this is really gonna work?

You know what? I think, because we had tried the traditional wholesale distribution, it just wasn't working. It just wasn't where. I mean, it's still going, but it just wasn't gonna get us where we needed to go. Like, it's, it's a volume game. You have thin margins, you're out there, you need to have a really big employee, a sales team, a lot of people to get out there, manage every single state. So it's, it's very resource intensive and it works for about 2% of our industry. That's what I'll say. There's so many small wineries like us who want to get their product out there and they just can't find the channel. And so I think because of our mission, because wine brings people together, and bringing people together around an impact is kind of what we specialize at. One Hope. I think it was just natural for the community to form. And right away after we did our first few wine tastings with a few of the reps that we had, we just knew that it was the best way to share what we were doing. And that's kind of. I mean, we've evolved our mission to four words, which is share wine and give hope. And that's what we do at one hope. And, like, that's honestly the best way to do it. And, of course, we have our physical space now. We opened our winery. We.

So stunning.

Yes. We purchased the winery 10 years ago, but it's finally open. We built a home on the property for our community. And then we also have the winery, and. Which is fantastic. It's amazing. But only so many people can get to Napa every year. And so our community and getting out there is still really the best way to share about what we're doing and again, democratize that Napa Valley wine tasting experience. Because when you can get up there, great. But we're really trying to reach more people.

So tell me what that started to look like when you wanted to get that message out. Like, let's talk about how you kind of got the message together of how you're gonna pitch it to people to get them excited. And what did that really look like? Starting to activate those first few people or whatever it was.

Yep, exactly. So we had our first. Like I said, we kind of had our first few volunteers, and they were in Manhattan beach here, you know, locally, where we are. And they had a few wine tastings.

So really did start with a few people.

Really did start.

People need to hear that.

Yes, exactly. So it was like, a few. They would have a wine tasting. They would sell, like, $1,000 of wine, for context, that would take me, you know, a very long time to, like, go and present to a distributor, then present to the retailer, then have them buy six bottles of wine. And it's just, like.

Because people were signing up on the wine club type of things. Okay.

Yeah. And people would, you know, they would be able to go in a home. They would be able to try before you buy it. So people, you know, can't do that in a store.

So they had an experience with it.

They had an experience with it, which is so important about our product. And so once that worked, we knew, okay, let's get a backend system. Let's get an affiliate system where we can figure out how to pay commission. We can figure out how to track sales. So operationally, I was. We were kind of like, okay, off to the races. Let's figure this out. We had our test group. We kind of, like, trialed and errored it for a while. We were only open in California. And then what we did is we really Opened it beyond California, where we can start to ship to multiple states. I think one of our next states was Tennessee. One of our very first wine reps is in Nashville. So it just really spread through word of mouth and, you know, paying them a commission and. And giving them a chance to make an income in the wine industry. Because as I knew, it wasn't easy to start your own thing. It's very capital intensive. It's very hard for women to break through the industry, especially when they're not part of a generational family, like I said. And so I think the passion of just bringing the opportunity to people across the country who I just knew loved wine and giving back, it naturally grew really organically for the first, probably five or six years. And then, of course, them referring other wine reps to the business through the pandemic and everything else, when we were probably all drinking more wine at home than we wanted to, helped us grow a ton, too. So it just sort of naturally progressed, I would say, to what it is now. We have a few thousand wine apps across the country that are sharing our product, and it's. It hasn't been anything overnight. Like, my favorite thing when they hear about One Hope is like, oh, my gosh, like, you. I just heard of One Hope. You just started. And it's like, well, that was, you know, took 17 years to get here.

So I remember, I don't even know where I was, but it was definitely like one of the. Maybe not the first, but a few years into, like, a personal development journey. And it was like a event and a dinner that we were at, and someone was like, oh, have you heard of this brand? They're amazing. They, like, donate so much money to X, Y and Z. And. And it was a. I think it was one of the sparkly bottles, too. And it just put it on my radar, like, from then on.

Of.

Wow, that's really cool because there was a great story attached to it. And I had learned later about, you know, the sales reps and being able to make money from it, which I think is absolutely brilliant. You know, I just feel like any. I. I believe any product you love should have something attached to it. So. Because we love sharing it.

We love it. Yes.

And wine is such a visceral experience, and it's. It's so fun. It can be so much fun. So tell me a little bit more about, you know, some of the reps and the people who've really made a career out of it.

Yes. So, you know, it's. It's definitely A spectrum. So I have, I have wine apps that do it part time and then I have a few that have made it their full time career. And it all, it sort of just depends, you know, what you want to put into it, I would say. But the majority, it's a really great side hustle on top of their full time career because they're so wine engaged and because they love earning an extra income, it just, it just really works. And then of course, when you have a wine club and kind of have that opportunity for them to earn the passive income, I think when we launched our wine club, which wasn't that long ago actually, I think it was, gosh, five or six years ago, where we really put the technology behind. Okay, now we're going to build a direct to consumer wine club where it wasn't just kind of buying it once at an event. It was like we need the technology to really service an ongoing wine club where now it's 100% flexible. You can get, you know, anywhere from six to 12 bottles, one, two or three months. You can pick your own wines that you want. And so that was a bit of a game changer for our community as well because it was about getting the customer acquisition going and then that retention with the wine club really helped their earning potential too. So you know, most of our wine reps, it's just, it's a great addition to what they're already doing. And then we have a full time six figure opportunity that you can earn as well, that you can kind of work your way up to if that's your thing.

So how do they, can you share how they get paid out? Like is it per bottle or is it.

Yes, it's, we pay a sales commission. And then you also can make referral bonuses when you refer, you know, other wine reps. So it's kind of as simple as that. And we pay up to 35% sales commission.

Okay.

So we just increased that about a year ago we started it, the math was 25%. Now we're getting more lucrative at, at 35% in our compensation.

Did you see a difference with that? Because as companies are really talking about, you know, I'm a company right now too, and it's, it's like we're really leaning into how much can we possibly pay them because it's such an incentivizer for people.

Absolutely. Yeah. It was one of those moves where we were like, we're gonna figure out how to start a sliding skill where if like it, it goes from anywhere from 20 to 35%. It kind of depends on how much you sell a month. So that's kind of what changed for us is what we put that sliding skill and we were able to offer more if you put in more that month. So for us, again, because I come from an industry that's so layered, we really have the opportunity to do that when you go direct to consumer. Because again, it's still much healthier to go than going through a distributor that then resells it. Then resells it again.

Yeah.

So it also probably depends a little bit on what your product is, but for ours, it works great.

I love how you thought about it. So you took. Instead of paying a distributor, you're like, we want to pay the people and we want to give back.

Exactly.

Which the messages go so well together because in order for the people to make it easier for them to also sell the wine, it's such an easy sell with a feel good thing attached.

Exactly.

Which if anybody has a business or a company, it's like sometimes it's hard, especially in the beginning to say, oh, I mean, of course I want to give back, but my God, my margins are whatever. But we don't think of the big picture of no, by attaching this, you're probably going to make it a whole lot easier to sell because your messaging is going to like, power that whole thing. And that's truly. When people say One Hope, they think of giving back, like, I think before they even think of wine.

Yes. I love that. I mean, we have put the stake in the ground from the beginning, like I said. And like, we're really kind of putting our money where our mouth is. Like, we give 10%.

That's crazy.

Of sales to our customers. Cause of choice. So we just hit $11 million donated, which we are so excited about.

That's insane.

$11 million donated, but to over 40,000 nonprofits. So we're really like, every single dollar makes a difference. Every single event that you do with One Hope, even if you're just sharing about what your organization does and spreading awareness about what your organization does is really powerful. And doing it around a glass of wine that you can feel good about. Why not try One Hope over all the other wines out there if you know that it's going to a great cause. And the fact that you can fundraise locally, like you can go and buy one bottle on our website and direct where that one bottle where 10% of that purchase is going to so something. You know, We've evolved our wine distribution strategy over time, we've talked about that, but we've also evolved our giving strategy to really what works for our consumers, for what works for our business and what works for our nonprofit partners today. We started off back in 2007 when I talked about, you know, Campbell's Soup donating to breast cancer and those temporary marketing campaigns. We started off having a Chardonnay that was dedicated to helping women with breast cancer. Okay. A Cabernet that was supporting children with autism, and a Merlot that supported our global cause, which is supporting people living with aids. So each time you bought each of those bottles, that was the cause you were supporting. And of course, once we realized is right now we have 50 SKUs, so that's kind of hard messaging to keep up as you add more to your portfolio. But in addition to that, I had so many considerations, consumers coming to me and saying, I want to support autism, but I'm a Chardonnay drinker, or I want to support aids, but I only drink cab or whatever it is, Right. And so we've really simplified things and kind of graduated to this again, supported by technology, supporting by the distribution that we can do on our back end. And we check everything for you in that 10%. We cut the checks every single month. And gosh, yeah, we've just reached 40,000 nonprofits that we've given to, which is just really cool.

The technology you had to build out for that, was it crazy? Like, how do you figure that out?

It was so our site, we custom built our technology. So that was also a decision that we made early on. We use different resources, but our site, our e commerce platform is. We built it ourselves. And that was because we were so unique in what we wanted to do with giving back and what we wanted to do with our wine club, there was nothing out there that really supported the wine club that we wanted to build. And there was nothing out there that really supported, you know, paying the community the way I wanted to pay them. So it was just kind of a combination of, well, you gotta create something that's unique to you and that you can manage and that scales. Cause again, we're. We're really trying to scale to make the impact that we wanna make. And so for us, having bringing that in house was important. And still to this day, we build some stuff on our own, but we outsource some stuff on our own. I mean, we've messed up and built stuff on our own too. I'll give you an example. When we first came out with our app for our wine rep, Community. We really thought that needed to be custom built and we've custom built it. It's not cheap. Last year. Yeah, not at all. And last year we went back and used an out of the box technology because our custom app that we built only works for iOS users and we needed to have an app that was for Android as well. So we just literally took something out of the box and then connected to our system. So we, we do, you know, in house and outsourcing now. And I've learned that it's sort, you know, and made mistakes along the way where it's kind of like, you know what, like technology changes so fast that we really need both an in house, kind of smaller team and then an outsourced team that allows us to be flexible just like every part of the other business that we're in. Kind of stay flexible again. Stubborn on the vision and flexible on how you get there.

How do you feel like really giving those proceeds, like the 10%, like going really big on that because that's so rare. Like I don't even know of another company that's doing that. How has that really helped you draw maybe like the mentors and the celebrity and the help to your brand in order to get out there more?

Yeah, you know, it helps with both acquisition and retention. Like of course it's, you're doing something, you're doing something great. And for me, like as an entrepreneur that's been grinding this company for 17 years, it's, it's not only like a great North Star and a why and it keeps you passionate about what you're doing, but it's also, like you mentioned, it's really great for both customer acquisition and retention. And it just makes you really easy, you know, being in the wine space. There's, it's interesting because there's people who aren't all the time comfortable partnering with an alcohol, which is actually why we have our own foundation, we have the One Hope foundation that we donate from. But it's interesting because when you kind of talk about that aspect, we're like, well, you're giving back. Like, yeah, let's partner. We've, we've gotten around a lot of stuff because of that. So I think it just helps in every single aspect. Like in internal, you know, motivation, our employee intrinsic value, our customers support. Like again, acquisition, retention, like everything across the board. Not only are you doing good, but when you start that way and when you build it into the fabric of what you're doing, I think you have the authenticity piece and you have like, people can just, I guess, connect with that easier. And that's hard because I'm not even the one out there that's always telling the story again. I have a couple thousand win reps that do it on our behalf, and that's also a game of phone tag and messenger too. So when you have a strong mission that you can share in four words, I give wine and share hope. Like, it helps to get the right message across and it helps you get more customers and keep more customers. And that's what it's done for one hope, at least.

Yeah, for sure. How have you guys been able to. Because you said there's six. How have you been able to stay on the same vision through all of these years? Like, I know you have, you know, the four words, but that's a lot of personalities. There's been a lot of life that's happened, I'm sure. Families, children, all of the things like, how do you guys stay on the same page?

Yeah, yeah, that's a good. It's. It's a. It's so. And I only know. I only know having multiple co founders. Right. I don't know how it is to be by my own. I think that the support and like, even though I have multiple co founders, I've still been so lonely at times. So I can't even imagine actually not having them. So I think they bring so much support. But then, you know what, you got a lot of cooks in the kitchen at the same. At the same time. And so I think centering around our vision and wanting to make a difference has helped the most. And I think being supportive partners and you know, there are six of us, but not all six of us do the business full time anymore. We actually about just two years ago didn't have all six of us doing the business. So we lasted a really long time.

Yeah.

But you know, it wasn't the right fit day to day for two of our co founders. They're still co founders. Their life took them in different directions. We still meet on a monthly basis with everybody to talk about the business. But it's also, if it's not the right time for everybody, like, we want to build something that outlasts us.

Right.

For sure in every way possible and that last generations and that can make an impact on generations. And I think just when you're centered around that, you can find your way through any kind of disagreement, you know, fork in the road type of situations. We try to be as clear in our communication as possible. But starting a Business with your friends is also hard. I'll say. Um, it's good in a lot of ways, but it's also. We've had to do culture shifts many times, and I could talk about that too, if, if you want, but starting a business with friends is not. Is. It's kind of. For us, it created a little bit of like a too nice evasive culture, which is just bad news bears for any, any business.

Because you were avoiding tough conversations.

We were avoiding tough conversations. We've had to go through multiple posts, personal development kind of journeys to, to get through that and even to I, even to identify that we were doing that really, because we were always in tough, passionate conversations. But you got to really dig deep and understand like, yeah, you're, you're avoiding. You're. You're kind of like, what did we say? We would rather eat a shit or d' oeuvre than a shit sandwich than a whole buffet. And I hate to say a bad word. I shouldn't have said that.

Oh, everyone, we all swear on this.

Podcast, but you know what I mean? Like, we were kind of like making it way to the buffet when we could have just nipped it in the bud earlier. And we really created the entire culture of our company. And so like that, you know, for, for better or worse, it created sort of this evasive culture where if you can't lay the sunk on the table and understand like, what is our actual problem, how are we solving it? And you're too weird about being nice all the time and having everyone like you, which was my personal problem. You're just not going to get anywhere and you're not going to grow and your company's certainly not going to grow. And so working on that together was big. We did a leadership development course together and that was a game changer for us for sure.

Did you bring someone in for that? We did bring someone that you, you have to.

At that point, we, we had to. We couldn't. I don't even think we really knew until we had someone kind of sit with us and come through and do our workshops. We did a very intensive. We did a 12 week program. We also learned how to coach each other. We learned some lasting things that are still kind of with us today. And it did. It's kind of like once we changed the culture at one, Hope changed too, which was, which was beneficial just because it's not always rainbows and butterflies. It's like we were in a challenging time and if we weren't willing to have to have Conversations. We just weren't going to fix anything.

It's so interesting because, like, what a benefit of having the six of you, like, you actually didn't have a choice, like where sometimes when there's two partners or just one person, you can continue on down a very painful path and just like, let it be what it is and not know why your employees are the way they are and why your company is the way it is. But it's almost like because there was six, you guys had to face it.

Or you're gonna fall apart, you know, we had to. That's such a good point. Yep.

So it's like such a blessing.

It's such a blessing.

Okay, so tell me about how you make it possible for people who weren't born into the wine industry, were born billionaires to own part of a winery. Because my favorite joke is billionaires go to Napa to become millionaires.

It's so true. It's so true. And I think that's why people love what we're doing on property. And you've been there. So we purchased One Hope Winery and our, really our vineyard destination property. Our first one. We're still on our first one. There's going to be more of. Mark my words. But yes, we purchased it 10 years ago, actually, and there was a small home on the property. And the property also came with a vesting winery permit, which is really important for us to build the brand. And we source from multiple vineyards. We're still only about 1% vertically integrated.

So when you say source, you get. You get. Go get grapes from other vineyards. You buy their.

We do. We do. Yes. Okay. We do. So even though we have our own in house winemaking team, we really have the flexibility to buy whatever is best on the market every single year, which is really, again, where you want to be if you don't own a ton of land. Like, if that wasn't your, you know, you really want that. Like in a year, like this year, there's going to be so much good grapes available. So it's.

Yeah, because if you. There's. And there's fires and there's like things that could totally kill your business if you don't have that model.

Exactly, Exactly. And so that really wasn't our expertise anyways. Yeah. And then it's been. It's been great. A growth strategy for us just because we needed to again, stay flexible with what we wanted to do every year. So we're at about 100,000 case plus, you know, brand at this point. We just broke the top 250 wineries by volume a couple of years ago, which is cool. But we definitely can't produce everything on our. On our property. So we produce outside of that in central coast. Sonoma, Napa. Our property is located in Napa and we have our own winery there. Like I said, the purchase of the property came with the vesting winery permit that was already done, and it came with the architectural plans from Howard back. And so our winery architect was incredible. He's done so many iconic properties throughout the valley.

Stunning. One of my favorite spots to go.

It's. It's really cool.

Yeah.

And it was just really important to us to kind of get that physical flagship in the ground and really, like, we want people to come on property and just feel the brand and feel what we're trying to do at One Hope. And of course, we're trying to kind of democratize that as we talked about throughout the country, because not everybody can get there. But it's sort of our most aspirational experience. And we really wanted to build it in a different way than we had done anything else. Just like everything we do at One Hope, it's. It's pretty unique the way we get things done. And so we kind of crowdsourced funding the property with different partners that we call our vineyard investment partners. So people that really are interested in investing in real estate in Napa or owning a piece of their own winery, but maybe don't want to do all of the work of figuring out how to sell the stuff and market the stuff and all of that.

The romantic part that.

Yes, exactly. So we take care of all that. And it's really. It's just been a wonderful thing because we have so many people that believe in our vision and love to come on property and come together. And it's really built so people can come together and talk about how to solve the world's problems and the impact that they want to make together. It's really cool. We have a vintage wine press right in our entryway that kind of signifies that, like back in the day, there was one family that owned the press. Everybody would come bring their grapes to that press. The one family would press it and then distribute the wine kind of as a co op throughout the community. And that's kind of what we've built at One Hope is a co op of people that want to make the future better for future generations with us. And of course, I think they like to own a little piece of the property and not have to do a ton of what we already talked about. So it's a beautiful place to. To stay and bring your family and have really cool experiences, which is just the other amazing thing about our product is that it brings people together. It brings so many wonderful conversations about good and bad around wine. So, yeah, it's a. It's a shared space that we're very happy to share with our vineyard investment partners.

And what does that look like? Can people still be a part of that?

Yes, they can. We do have a few spots left, and like I said, I think we have a vision and dreams to do other properties in the future. So not anything solidified yet, but right now it's. It's in Napa and we do still have an opportunity for people to get involved in that too.

The property is stunning. Whether it's like the. The wood fired pizza in the back that you get to go experience. I've been there for a wedding. And also some other things where you get to go pick out your own toppings and, you know, be able to have these incredible conversations with people. And the pool is stunning. And getting to look at, like this hill with grapes all over it and the mist coming in and just like the level of people that are a part of it too. Just the conversations and the things they're doing in the world, whether it's, you know, entrepreneurial or things that they're doing to give back. Like the feelings that I have experienced there, I think because of all of the things that you have on property to make it so special from, like you said, the house, the architecture, the experiences that you can do, the people, the. The table that you get to sit around, the decor like, oh, my gosh, it's just. It's a visceral experience that, you know, when I would come back and tell people, I'm just like, I. It's. It's magical. Because what you've created is. Is truly all around the messaging and also sharing of wine. Like, will you tell me just some of the. Just give me maybe some of the experiences that you. You've had there that were just like, life changing for you.

Oh, my gosh. Well, I mean, the very first thing that just popped into mind last weekend, we had our annual harvest party.

I always hear about that.

Okay, you are. You guys are coming next year. We need to get that on the calendar. But yeah, they're usually around October, and every winery in this time kind of celebrates their harvest. Right? So, of course we're celebrating the harvest that we had, which we've harvested some incredible wines that'll go in the barrel for a few years, but we kind of take a version of a harvest party and do it One Hope style. So we make it our biggest fundraiser of the year where we bring our community together. And this year, we chose to raise money for children in the US that are in need of school supplies. And so every dollar that was donated that night actually has 24 times the impact of that dollar in school supplies. Because this organization gets school supplies donated. And really we're just paying for the transportation, which is just so incredible because in back to school seasons, there's still so many communities where teachers are actually paying out of their own pocket for the school supplies for children that don't have the means for it. And so that was really our education goal this year, to raise a million dollars of school supplies in one night for children in the US that just couldn't afford it another way. And we did it. And it's just so interesting because when you bring the right people together and you're such an expert on this, you can just make such an impact. And I will never forget that feeling. I mean, it was only last weekend, but every heart harvest party we had the same weekend last year. We were able to build a school. We've been able to do water projects on property and things like that. So those kind of stand out. But I would just say, like, I love bringing my kids there and just being able for them to experience, like, a little bit about what we've built together and what their mom has done. And they. They love Napa. I mean, they love the pool, of course, they love the property, but they were really, at 11 and 9, starting to, like, understand the importance of what we're doing and, like, why it's important to me and why it's important to them. And that's what's really cool about having a physical space that we didn't have in the first 10 years of really building. The brand is like, your kids can come and experience it and feel it. They see me, you know, on zoom calls all day long. But when they get to go on property and feel it and experience. Experience it, like, that's always really special to me too. So I take them up there as. As much as I can.

How often do you think you get up there?

I'm there about once a month.

Oh, nice.

Yeah, that's perfect. Yeah, I'm there about once a month, and then I take them there a couple times a year. They're getting older now, so I'm gonna try to. Try to Sneak them in on some work trips, too, because you never know. They might want to be in the wine industry. They don't say they do yet, but I'm thinking I can change once they're.

Old enough for that. Froze.

Exactly. We're a few years away. Exactly. Oh, that froze is so good.

It's. It's a problem. But it's such a great problem that gives back.

Exactly. Exactly. You don't feel bad about it?

Yeah. No. Okay, so tell me. Let's talk about the wine. What's your favorite wine? All the things. Tell me.

Oh, my God.

And your bottles. I need to know about, like, where that started, too.

Yeah. So they're all stunning.

Not just the glittery ones, but, I mean, they're all. So for anybody who. True. I'm. I started as a wine lover because just, like, you know, you're attracted to the bottle and the experience.

Yes.

So total shot.

Yes. So I. It's. It's kind of like you can't pick. I mean, I love all of our wine. I wouldn't come out the wine if I didn't like it. I do have some wines that aren't my style, that are really popular, that I'm like, you know what? You got it. We have something for everybody at one, which is part of how we're going to make the biggest impact. But so wines that come to mind for me, really, about the experience I have around them, like our Fume Blanc, which we serve on property, is probably my favorite, one of my favorite wines we've ever made. And that's because it's the first wine I ever had on property. I can remember, like, exactly what that first glass tasted like out of the barrel. Once we bottled it, the first one I opened, it's the first wine that we serve when guests are coming on property to greet them. I love the story behind it, too, because we have Sauvignon Blanc on property, so we make a Fume Blanc. Half of our Sauvignon Blanc goes into a stainless steel tank that's delicious as well. And then about half of it, we put in French oak, and that's really how we're making our family Blanc. So it's just so unique, and it's a little bit of a homage to the Mondavi family and their Famil Blanc that they've made because they're partners in one hope as well and helped us a lot kind of get started in Napa. Rob Mondavi Jr. Was one of our first winemakers, so they were super open.

Like the open arms.

Open arms.

Is that rare?

Very rare in the industry. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, we're kind of the new kids.

I do think that everyone loves.

You know what? It's such a funny story. So my co founder, Sarah was at a trade show 15 years ago, I think it was 15 years ago now. And just at a distributor trade show, doing your thing like we were all doing. Had the table. Every single person that comes by. We would tell like a 30 second pitch on what One Hope was doing in our story. And the gentleman walked up, Sarah told him about everything we were doing at One Hope. And he had said, I love this concept. I would love to make the wine for you or help you make the wine. And she said, oh, you know what, we have a really great winemaker already, but let me get your card and I'll, I'll, you know, let's connect. And she didn't even look at the card until the end of the night because she was collecting so many business cards. This is back in the day we had business cards, cards, you know, now it's like just bump and do stuff like that. Before it was like, how many business cards you can collect. So at the end of the night, she looked down the business cards and it was Michael Mondavi.

Oh, my God.

And so she was just like, oh, my gosh. So we connected with him. It took a while to get that meeting, but he did just that, introduce us to his son, which is still our partner today, Rob Mondavi Jr. Who actually makes his wine now out of our winery, which is so funny.

Yeah.

And they've been really great partners and rose really supportive of us buying the property there, which is right next to Robert Mondoffy. Like the big. The big winery you could. Exactly. So anyways, I love the fume blanc for some of those reasons. And that's again, just why I love wine. Because I could taste our foume blanc and it takes me back to that exact spot where I first had the very first class of property that we did. Single vineyard on our own property. So that's just like the first time I'm there. Absolutely.

I think I've. I've mostly drank the rose.

Oh, yeah. Oh, we have some good roses.

It is very good.

Yes, we do.

Do you have more than one?

We do. We have a Italian rose right now, a risotto that we have a collection called Her Story, which I love. And then we have California rose. We have a Sonoma coast rose. So I have a few. A few roses that I need to get.

Look at. Look at how caught up I need to get.

I know. No, I absolutely need to. Yes, we have some rose coming your way. And I think we had froze together on property where we bless. Yeah, it was like a. More of a slushy. We have a slushy machine. Of course. Everybody, every winery needs a slushy machine.

You know, I bought a frozen machine after that.

You did?

I really did.

Oh, I need to get you some rose for that then.

Absolutely have to do this.

It's so good.

A $900 froze machine. Okay.

I know. Well, cuz you can't get just the over the counter. You need to get the commercial ones. Make the legit froze. Yes, absolutely.

Making it with your wine is amazing.

Oh yes, exactly. How.

How are bottles chosen?

So we, like I said, now we have about 50 different wines available. So we have.

Is it recent that you got way more wine?

We. Well, I think when we expanded into the valley, we have our wines that come on property now, which is kind of our, again, most aspirational wines, single vineyard, iconic wines. And then we have our reserve collection that we also make at the winery. So we've really premiumized a lot of our offerings, which are just so, so beautiful. Of course, since we're up there, they're.

Stunning gifts, like stunning.

Thank you.

Keep going.

Yes. So we have, we're really specialize in everything California has to offer. So Cabs, Pinot noirs, rose, we of course have Chardonnays. So we really have like our California entry level Chardonnay. Then we have our reserve Chardonnay. Then we have our iconic Chardonnay. So because we've really gotten into that premiumization since we've been in Napa, that's expanded the portfolio quite a bit. And then we have our shimmer bottles which you've mentioned, which can completely be customized and etched. So people really love those options. We have silver and we have gold and then we have pink rose now, which is a sparkling rose. So interestingly enough, if you take our sparkling wines, all of them, and combine the skus, we actually sell most sparkling. So I think the market's telling me people love to celebrate with one hope, which I do too. So I love that. And then behind that, you kind of follow the industry sense. Like we sell a lot of Cab, a lot of red blend and then a lot of Chardonnay. But you still need to have your Pinot Grigios, your Sauvignon, your Fume Blancs, as I talked about. So I don't know, it's a personal problem. I guess it really is a personal problem. We have. Yes, exactly. But we have our collections now that we kind of say, okay, this Sauvignon Blanc is available on the market or this is on the market, are we in the need for a reserve? If we take that and then we put it into our reserve collection. So you see some continuity now with our packaging between our iconic wines, our reserve wines and then our California wines. And so that's how we've, when we kind of establish those buckets and branding, it helps us, you know, find a product that we really love. If we have a need for it, we'll put it into one of those collections because they're all One Hope collections, but they all look different. One thing I've learned is, as you said, like, people love to shop wine based on what the label looks like. So I really like to provide that, that variety. And I want our E commerce storefront. Even though you're not standing and looking at a shelf, like, I want it to look like you have a lot of selection. I want our wine clubs to have a lot of selection and I want you to have a reason to celebrate with One Hope on Tuesday night or like to your anniversary dinner or, you know, any, anything. I want there to be a bottle for you. So we've expanded quite a bit since the three that we've started back in 2007, but it's been, it's been a good thing.

Yeah. It's such a beautiful gift, you guys. If you're thinking of, you know, the person who has everything or you just want to send really special customized gifts or it's an anniversary or it's the holidays or a birthday, like being able to, especially in the sparkly bottles, like being able to etch something in there is so much fun. I've gotten it, you know, given them, gotten them, gotten them from friends, like different launches or things that they've had where they put their company name in the bottle, which has been so cool. And then just being able to ship it for holidays and things like that is stunning. I know that when I've gotten it, it's such a beautiful presentation. Telling you it's better than sending flowers because flowers die.

Yes. And thank you for saying that because we have an in house gifting concierge team that will help you with any of your gifts. So we work with, I mean we work with Disney, we work with Google. Like it really does make the perfect client gift or holiday gift. And it's a great way to make an impact. I always say. It's like, it combines like a basket type, because we have some stuff that can come with the wines. Wine and giving back, which are three of the most common things that people love to give as a gift. It's kind of all of those in one. So.

Yeah, I feel like I've gotten, like, a big box.

Yeah, yeah. And you can customize wood crates. And we have some. Some really fun offerings, which is kind of coming up on holiday season, so. Yes. Yes. Thank you for mentioning that.

I'm like, this is happening.

It's. It's there big time.

I already just, like. I was like, oh, release date. Got it. Okay, this is what we'll do.

Yes. I love that.

Awesome. Well, I'm so excited that you came on. Is there anything else that you want to add for people?

Oh, my gosh, no.

Just.

Thank you so much for having me. And, yeah, I mean, it's such a. It's such a joy beginning to know you and Chris. And, like, I just really appreciate being here, and I'm so excited to have you on property.

We can't wait.

Coming up.

I literally can't be so pumped. I'm going to send this to all the ladies.

Perfect.

So that they can get just as excited as me, because it really does. When you tell the story with it, like, it gets you so excited to be a part of it. So thank you for giving us the opportunity to be a part of something like that, where it's. It's fun and it's giving back like it truly is. There's no better. There's no better pair than that, in my personal opinion. So we go to. There's like, there's kind of two different ways to work with you if they want. If someone's like, wait a minute. Could be the best, like, wine. What do you. What do you call that?

Wine wraps. One hope. Yeah.

Yeah. So tell me about that, and then let's talk about where they should go.

Absolutely. So go to onehope wine.com if you're interested in that. We have all the information about how you could join our wine club or if you want to sell it, you become a wine rep. It's all there. And if you're looking for client and holiday gifts, it's also on our website. If you want to host a wine tasting, you can find information about that on our website.

If you have events, if you have.

Exactly, exactly. So everything's there. Onehopewine. Com. And there's a ton of different ways to support what we're doing amazing.

Well, I'm so grateful for you and you guys. If you love this episode, make sure you share it with a friend. If you have a wine lover, if you're looking for gifts at all, holiday gifts, anything to celebrate, make sure you share this episode. And until next time, earn your happy. Bye, everyone.