Thru The Grapewine

Ready to Take Flight into the World of Wine? Meet Stephanie Franklin of FlyWines

• Ute Mitchell • Episode 37

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Join us for an inspiring conversation with Stephanie Franklin, the visionary founder of FlyWines, as she shares her remarkable journey from the tech industry to the world of wine. Stephanie's story is a testament to the power of passion and innovation, as she recounts her adventures exploring different cultures and the profound influence of her European travels on her life.

Discover how Stephanie broke barriers, transitioned from the corporate world, and launched FlyWines, a venture aimed at building stronger human connections through wine exploration. Learn about FlyWines' unique approach to accommodating diverse palates with their subscription program, and get an exclusive glimpse into their plans for making wine tasting more interactive in the future.

Stephanie's story is a captivating blend of creativity, passion, and determination, offering a compelling example of embracing change and following one's instincts in pursuit of a fulfilling career. Tune in as her journey unfolds, and prepare to be inspired to embark on your own wine-fueled adventures!

Check out FlyWines

Medium article about Stephanie
Stephanie featured in nasdaq
Fly Wines on Instagram

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Speaker 1:

Hello everyone and thank you for tuning in to the Through the Grapevine podcast. Once again, I am your host, euta Mitchell, and as always, I have another amazing guest here with me today. But first a quick reminder the store is open. You can buy your custom made jewelry bracelets right there at the through the grapevinecom slash forward, slash shop, and it's an intro sale right now, so you're never gonna get those prices again. Just saying so, we're gonna jump right into it. My guest today is Stephanie Franklin. She is the founder and CEO of Flywines, a company that provides luxurious wine tasting experiences. So we're gonna talk all about that, but I am going to just hand this over to Stephanie right away, because I really love my guests to introduce themselves. So where do you grow up, stephanie? What did you do for work beforehand? And just you know who is Stephanie Franklin.

Speaker 2:

Oh my, that's a loaded question. I actually transitioned into the wine industry from tech. I have an ad tech, more tech background. I grew up in Miami, funny enough, but I actually got my undergrad in Atlanta. I moved to London, I lived in New York and now the Bay Area. So I've been pretty much everywhere. And my transition into the wine industry is very different than a lot of people's stories, as I had no prior formal studying or training. I just had a natural love for wines and came up with an incredible I thought was an incredible idea and I was like I would be crazy not to execute it.

Speaker 1:

Sure, I love that. So you lived in London. How long did you live in London?

Speaker 2:

Almost five years. Yes, I got my masters in London and I got it in international management, with marketing in London. So I cried on the plane right back to New York because I did not want to come back. I did not want to come back. But living in London actually is one of those first pivotal standpoints that allows you to see outside of the world and how vast things are, which is almost even the first intro into wines. One big thing about me I'm very big into cultures and meeting people. I naturally love understanding and learning people. Naturally, I just want to learn more. Tell me more about yourself, yeah, so, with that being said, being in London allowed me full access to European countries that have a vast amount of different wines, whether it be Italy, croatia, greece. So it was just, it was love at first sight to be in London and have so much easy access to other countries.

Speaker 1:

I do miss that about Europe, being in Germany and really, when you're vacationing, you're not just vacationing to another state, which you can, but you can go to France and Italy and Spain and Portugal and England and yes, and each country, even just when you're so. I grew up right on the Swiss and French borders and even though we all spoke a very similar language in that area, as soon as you cross the border, people are different. It doesn't matter, it's a five minute drive or walk across a bridge and people are just different there, and I really do think everybody should have that experience to just venture out to beyond what's familiar to them and just go and experience these different cultures.

Speaker 2:

We can discuss my unlimited love for French and want to be fluent in French one day. That has not come to existence yet, but it will one day. But I did have the pleasure of driving from Paris to a friend's wedding in Lake Homo, so we had to go through the books. It was just beautiful. It was such a gorgeous drive and, like you said, to cross those lines and you see, oh, we're at a gas station, we just went through border control and that was the whole, no, the world. What is happening?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, exactly so. You fell in love with wine and were eventually so intrigued by it that you decided you're going to shift into the wine industry. So tell me a little bit about how that process went. Yeah.

Speaker 2:

And I think I'm going to take a step back and see how the whole idea came about. So in the pandemic, it was the middle of just like my friends and I, I was in hate Ashbury. We were sitting out having wine with her stoop and her husband at the time. They were playing around making wines and Santa Cruz, and my friend Leah was like, oh my gosh, somebody received this wine tasting kit is horrible. And I was like you're right, this is horrible. And I was like Leah, I think her this is an idea. She goes. I was like, yeah, and I can put your husband, your husband's wines in it.

Speaker 2:

I have no idea what propelled me to keep going to like researching more. I had no idea who ABC was, who to TTB was who, why the FDA has to be involved in wine. I had no idea. So I just went along the way and what I found is that even if you don't have the knowledge, if you provide a high level of vulnerability, people are very open to help you. The ladies and men at ABC, everyone. I'm like I would tell people to treat me with kid gloves. I apologize, take me step by step.

Speaker 2:

And if I would have looked at the whole idea of what I would need to go through beforehand. I probably wouldn't have done it, but I took it step by step and said, okay, what do I need now? And assessing the team luckily I have I can set. My love for wine was already there. One of my good friends, who's our chief sum, was already like telling me he's an Italian sum but he doesn't really count because he's like four generation. One time I was telling that, so he's just he already. My interest was already there. So he does product and design. So he was like, okay, we can do this. And then I brought another friend on that helped to see the CTO and it just grew from there. And to see it start from an idea on the stoop to an actual product that we have in partnerships with local wineries that we cherish, it's just phenomenal.

Speaker 1:

Oh, my gosh, that's so amazing. All right, so I actually really do appreciate what you said about. You know, you might have not even done it if you had looked at the bigger picture right away and gone. Oh wow, this is really hard, but you took it one step at a time and this is actually what I just talked to Gosh Mary Womack, who's episode air today, who said you know, sometimes knowing what's going to happen is actually the worst thing than just being able to just go. Okay, well, I'm gonna just see what happens, I'm gonna just take it one step at a time and just say yes to the experience. So I very much love that you are bringing this up as well, because that's just kind of a little bit of a theme that's going on right now. I love it.

Speaker 2:

I will also add that I have some very pivotal transitional moments in life that I've been stating that helped to push me into that area, even in 2020,. My mom passed away out the blue and she was really young and my mom thought she would live until she was in her 80s, like her parents, so that was very transformative as well. As my friend Leah, I told you about her passing away out the blue in five months. It was just like what is happening. So it was those transformational moments as well, too, that will leave you to say why not? It's like why, why? I cannot count on tomorrow being here because it may not. And one of my really big books that I love is called the Untethered so he says it so profoundly which is every minute can be your last breath. So if you're taking that type of viewpoint, it changes things. It changes things and those transformational events. I talk about them, but I think it's very encouraging for people to understand that. It allows you to be less focused on fear, but doing.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, for sure. It certainly puts things in perspective, man, when you're thinking of it that way. So the idea for Fly Wines we understand now how it was born. How did you decide then? Well one, how did you decide on the name? And really, what's the purpose of the company?

Speaker 2:

I wish I could say it was some grand scheme of thing on how we decided on the name, but it just came out. We were chatting in our meeting and Juliana, our son, was like you should call it Fly Wines and I'm like sounds great. Everyone agrees yeah, let's do it. I wish I could, but it's actually interesting. So a side note about me I'm studying to become a private pilot, so it's like oh, you're learning how to fly and it's called fly one. Oh no, I'm literally on the slow path. So it's a slow change, not anything spectacular, but it's one of those things to where it allows you to overcome fear and just allows you to be more present. So that's how the name came about. And then it transitioned from there to packaging.

Speaker 2:

Again, when you're entering into an avenue that you know nothing about, you have to be extremely patient with yourself. I never knew how much it would cost just to structure a box and packaging, and it's just like how much money do you want to create a box? So one of those types of things really opened my eyes up. And then you take the packaging side and then now you build those relationships. So one of the core things that's essential to me and I'm really grateful that I have a natural, I guess, type of flow for is building relationships. So going out and finding the wineries that will partner with us and even bringing them on board was also one of those things you have to do, because it's like oh, I have an idea, you don't have any wine, so someone has to go and understand the wine. So actually finding those partners to facilitate the whole wine process was very tedious, but it wasn't that much. It was more or less the parts behind getting the wine into those bottles.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, for sure. We'll talk a little bit more about that in a moment. But so for those of you who are listening for the first time, I always create my questions ahead of time so that my guests know what's going to happen next and what I'm going to be asking. So I do like to stay in order just a little bit, even though I know that we sometimes do get carried away and we'll just be talking about a topic and I have to go with. Where were we?

Speaker 1:

So you were featured in an Aztec article and in there you say embracing change may be accompanied by fear of failure and criticism, but the regret of not taking action can be even greater. Now this rings really true to me in my journey that I am on. When it comes to the podcast, there was a big amount of fear, because I was thinking well, who would want to listen to me? What do I have to offer? What if I fail? Or worse, what if I succeed? And just this constant fear has been holding me back and holding me back until I literally had that experience at the Women in Mind conference with Marlee Williams and her going. Well, just do it anyway. And I'm like, oh oh do it anyway.

Speaker 1:

Okay, cool, I'll do it. So, when you talk about this fear of failure and criticism, what made you go for it anyway? What was the driving force behind that?

Speaker 2:

Well, one of those beings at the passing of my mom, but another one being just not living a fulfilled life at the end of the day, meaning to say, okay, my life, I wanna make sure that my existence is something that I'm happy for, that I enjoy, cause a lot of times we don't realize a lot of things that we do come from societal pressures and norms. So we're just doing things just to do them, and if you're in your 30s, you're expected to be X, y and Z, especially when it comes to women. We're expected to be married, you're expected to have kids, and when you change or steer the driving a different direction, you have to answer to people. So now it becomes.

Speaker 2:

People are critiquing me and I have a lot of, even friends, that have that whole type of fear of it's like oh, I don't want to because of how it will look. So I wanted to stop chasing things about what look, whether it looked on a societal standpoint or in my family immediate family as well as extended family and I wanted to tell you something that I thoroughly just enjoy doing myself and the joy that I've had from doing that pivot and saying you know what, regardless of what will happen, the fear behind it. Why not? I do understand as well too is where my path is a little different. I'm not married, I don't have any kids, have a dog, so I was like well, why not?

Speaker 1:

You're not married and you're okay, Like why?

Speaker 2:

not Like it was and we're like, okay, I would be okay, I will outland on my feet and I think again we realize that life has happened and even on my darkest days I've actually come out of them. So taking that viewpoint or standpoint does help me face fear a little more and say why am I scared? It's like we kind of make a mountain of something To react. Actually, if you just faced it it would be perfectly fine.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, bravo, I love it. Now, anyone who is at all familiar with my podcast knows, of course I will always ask what, if any, roadblocks you encountered as a woman and in your case, also as a woman of color. What was or is this like for you at this point?

Speaker 2:

There are always roadblocks, especially me being a black woman. So you have first it's being a woman, then there's color. It's always, it goes hand in hand In a wine industry that's predominantly dominated by white men. Then also you're talking about less than 1% of black people that are in the wine industry, or either making wines, but you don't have necessarily like wine companies, whether they're distributors or wholesalers. That's an even smaller percentage. So the path has been quite interesting. It has been more receptive. I haven't faced any major hurdles internally to where it's kind of like rings the bell. But at the end of the day we can always say that, especially people of color, we can always assess the undertones of things, whether it is we naturally have to do that, whether some way may slight you just nicely or just kind of not take you seriously, and always get that oh, you're in wine, oh, it's always that oh.

Speaker 2:

I just never thought that, because it's like something that they never really hear. So you get more of a surprise in this about it, and then it becomes the inquisitiveness about it, about the roadblocks. But I find that it's mostly women in general within the wine space are very much so still behind, but I have built some very strong relationships with women within the space. But as well too, as being a person of color, connecting with people of color that are in the wine industry is very important.

Speaker 1:

For sure. Yeah, I definitely I don't remember which talk it was now. I think it might have been at the Women in Wine Conference, and I think it was Mariam Ahmed who was talking and I'm actually going to be interviewing her as well and I think it was her who pointed out that the problem, to begin with, is that black people are still not even expected to like wine. So why, if they don't like wine or that's our perception anyway why, if they don't even like wine, why would they go into this kind of business?

Speaker 2:

Exactly, yeah, and it's very much so, that type of avenue to where it's like, oh, you, oh not almost like.

Speaker 2:

oh, I didn't realize that it's like, no, we actually do, we enjoy, we enjoy wines. Or it's always has to be some type of differentiating factor as well to within it. And it's like, no, we just enjoy wines, we enjoy good wine. So even I find that, because I am a black woman, I have to make sure that I show up with everything intact. If not, it's feel like it's going to be extra scrutinized Because it's one of those things. But I think that's within any industry within the US, but especially wine, because there's so many, so little of us that are involved, we have to always make sure that it's presented away, because we know that if it's not, it can be easily of a turn off to someone towards building a relationship or business review.

Speaker 1:

And and again. Also going back to the Women in Wine Conference of this year and I forget the speaker's name, but she was pointing out that white women are often infantilized, so they need a protector, they need someone to look out for them, whereas black women are too young, already seen as adults who are not required to have help, who are not required to be infantilized. And so there is this expectation, even in teenagers, to do everything right. And if you don't do everything right, then well, of course not, and so I think I can understand where you're coming from when you're saying you've got to get it right. You feel like you have that responsibility to get it right where someone like me is more so allowed to fail or to not be perfect.

Speaker 2:

Yes, more is more room to error for you, and I'm actually happy that you brought that up, because that is definitely. There is even a high arc with them women in wine and I think we do ourselves a disservice by not acknowledging that, acknowledging that you and I are in a room. White women will come first, then it will come into the black women or whoever else, indigenous women, latin women, so it's just the hierarchy within that. But I think a lot of times the fear of acknowledging that actually does everyone a disservice, versus saying, hey, I'm in here first, now I'm going to pull you in with me Now.

Speaker 2:

That's where we force change into an industry that does not necessarily easily like change. Because you build a relationship, so credibility, then you bring others with you. That's how it works within growing an industry that's not used to. Your podcast is, like, essential for that. Bringing the whole narrative into women, even within a space of line, creates a new conversation which allows different men to see it and then also say, well, if this person is credible, obviously now she can bring in other people that are credible as well.

Speaker 1:

Right, Well, that actually moves us right into the next question which is not funny how that works sometimes.

Speaker 1:

So I love the interview that you had in the medium. You were asked what you would do if you could inspire a movement to bring out the best in people. Basically and you said this, and I think it goes very much along with what you just said to me this movement would strive to break down barriers and eliminated prejudices based on the race, religion, gender, sexuality and any other factors that divide us. It would promote inclusivity, celebrating the uniqueness of each individual and recognizing the value that diversity brings to our community. Now, I mean, that's beautifully said. So, probably, thank you.

Speaker 1:

You're an organ we have our legacy harvested which was founded by one of my previous guests to cat Bramlett. Yes, I love that interview with her. Oh my gosh, she's so great. I honestly this was another one of those you know moments of oh my gosh, she's so fast. So, aside from the work that the organization does on a regular basis, they also put on an annual BIPOC block party where you can taste wine, you can eat food, listen to music and support BIPOC businesses. Are you aware of any other organizations that have a similar mission like that, or do you see yourself starting one?

Speaker 2:

I am not aware of.

Speaker 2:

Besides, I know the McBride sisters do a lot of work within the community as far as foot grants, but I definitely see myself wine venturing into that avenue and creating an inclusive space to where everyone feels heard and everyone feels value.

Speaker 2:

A lot of times, especially within the US, everything is seen as a competition versus just letting greatness sit within them, Everyone sit within the greatness of themselves. Everything doesn't have to be a competition around it and there's partnerships that we can grow together, and I found that I've grown faster in things when I've learned to partner with people. Now the main thing is partnering with the right people that have that same growth mindset as you, versus focusing on things like gender race. So when we create that inclusive environment, you allow other aspects of people to shine outside of what's visually there or anything else it's like. No, now I can look more at your characteristics, your how we're going in the same directions outside of just the surface level type of things, and I think it's so. We get so easily caught up in surface level visuals to where we miss. There's so much more deeper within the human connection outside of that that will allow us all to appreciate the greatness within each other and lift each other up.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yes to that.

Speaker 2:

And I will say something. It may be very random, you can cut it off if you like, but it was one thing I saw on the other day. Sturgis did an amazing Beyonce costume because I just saw her in London and she was like, oh, I'm so happy. And someone came on and said, oh, I hate Beyonce but and I said, wow, you hate someone and you never met and you're like like, hey, such a strong word.

Speaker 2:

So I think we have this mindset again. There's a visual surface Level that you see in a person that's caused you to create this whole narrative in your head. That's not even there, versus saying, okay, I don't know this person dislike, I get it, I dislike it, it's not my thing, but hey, and I think we use that type of wording so Easily and not realizing behind it I'm like that's because, again, the surface level you're looking at Versus saying the deeper level within someone Okay, you don't have a connection with her, great, I dislike it. Yeah, it's not for me. But to hate it's like, wow, that's such a strong word to someone you've never met right, and and yeah, I mean to hate the person Rather than to, you know.

Speaker 1:

I mean, if you're feeling compelled to say anything at all, okay, give me what you don't like. You know I'll be on. Say I don't care for her music, correct? Rather than, oh, I hate Beyonce. That okay, well, that's great. Yay, I totally hear you, and no, I'm not cutting that one out. I think that's a really good comment. So, yeah, I'm actually I'm very much looking for, looking forward to the, the block party, because I am definitely someone who has an appreciation Appreciation, like you were saying, you know, for other cultures and for people who are different from me, because I do think that this whole you know us as, as a whole, it makes it such a beautiful Community and and to have these different connections, why would I not go for that?

Speaker 2:

You know why the learnings, the learnings from each other. I've always been a very much so a person as roots for the underdog, or very much so a A protector of people like I don't like seeing injustice in any type of way. I don't care, it's like why that's pointless, like it doesn't make sense. Yeah, so it just is a gradual progression within my life to See and build something on fly wines and then to create a message of inclusivity. So I will definitely like we have something or a program within fly wines that will have an inclusive environment and even teach people about the biases that they necessarily do have, that they don't see Consciously and subconsciously.

Speaker 1:

Yeah Well, I love it. I'm gonna be kind of following your journey, for sure, thank you. So I do want to pivot back to fly wines. Your aim is to bring wine into households that are generally not easily come by, and, from what I see on your website, you offer actual tasting side size packs, which is so cool. Some of the bottles actually only like 187 milliliters, and so this is obviously super cool for anyone who wants to really just try a Wine without having to commit to a full bottle, which is often difficult when it comes to wine. So I know that, do you, that not all winemakers offer these sizes, naturally, are there any that do offer them, just because they're working with you?

Speaker 2:

Yes, and that means that I had to do all the footwork to make that happen. We had to be sourced bottles, the parts. There are certain parts that have to be accompanied. This means this comes from myself to Leverage the company that they purchased their parts from, because we work with 14 o'winary who's located in Gear Glory, california. I had to get all the parts, the specific parts, to change the machine so that they could bottle at that size. So it is very intricate with the net aspect.

Speaker 2:

But again, I didn't, I just took a step by step. I'm like well, we need the parts, less, contrary, the Italian Distributors, so we can get the parts. We need bottles. Where am I gonna find bottles? And, taking that little bit of a step by step, allow the winery to go trust in me. They know that they aren't my word and they're like okay, well, stephanie is really serious about building it, because a thing about it is you can have a conversation with someone and it sounds great. As my dad always say, sounds good, we'll see what happens. You know, just like sounds good means like Sounds good to. Actually, when they saw that I bought the parts because these parts are not cheap they were like she's serious when.

Speaker 1:

I saw that the bottles came in and I was like oh, she is serious.

Speaker 2:

So it allowed us to build a really great circle of trust, and I just love the family and their wines as well too. And the thing about why wines is we're not just putting together Packages, we are creating an luxurious experience from home and everywhere else. So, with that being said, our main differentiators that we do focus on high quality wine, what luxurious packaging, so it creates a whole experience. So people give them as gifts, housewarming presents. We do a lot of virtual events with businesses as well, as we even partner with businesses. They give it out to their clients as gifts. So, yeah, our model was a bit different than the typical type of wine Um type of model, to where we have our B2C side. You can come buy wines on the website, but we also have a B2B angle as well too. So we work with restaurants, wine shops yeah for sure. Oh, that is so cool.

Speaker 1:

So now, let's say, someone is brand new to wine tasting, they have had wine before, but they really don't know what they're doing. Do you provide any educational materials like tasting notes, things like that? Yes, we definitely do provide the tasting notes. I'm a wine enthusiast.

Speaker 2:

But we do have a chief sum of Juliano who provides everything and actually it picks the wine and we say which ones we're going to bring in.

Speaker 2:

We also have a sorcerer and I'm within another country as well too who partners with other wineries for us, because the boxes are just the beginning of the vision of fly wines. So there's a wine tasting box where you can Utilize and taste and it's actually good for people that Don't really like wines but they just want to sample wine and they feel bad by purchasing a big bottle of wine that they're not going to drink and it's just, it's intimidating. So if you think that you're, if you look at it from a novice standpoint, it's like I just wanted a glass of wine and then you buy a bottle you don't like and then now also you're wasting it. You just feel like, uh, versus. Our boxes so so, so so are specifically built to meet the needs of people that don't really enjoy wine but wanna taste little samples, as well as those that like wine and they just want to explore different rinds from around the world in different regions.

Speaker 1:

Sure, sure, Wow. Well, you know, I mean, wine is never way said, you can always put it in spaghetti sauce.

Speaker 2:

I think, so I put it in everything.

Speaker 1:

Right, exactly, so okay, so now someone really loves the wine they tasted. Do you sell the full-size bottles then?

Speaker 2:

too. Yes, we can sell the full-size bottles. They will be on our website as well. We also are starting our wine subscription program later this year, so our international wine subscription program. So these will be full bottles of wine. So we have. We can work with different wine. If you're from around the world, we're bringing a Portuguese wine in. We have the Turkish wine that's coming in. Yeah, it's gonna be. It's really phenomenal and I'm really excited about it. But it will allow people the ones that do not wanna taste just smaller packages. They can still buy the box. People that want to discover wines from lesser unknown regions will be able to do the wine subscription and have the full bottles to enjoy.

Speaker 1:

All right, you were just mentioning Turkey and I know that in your interview you said that you started a partnership with a winery in Turkey, in a remote area, which this Turkey is not the first place that people think about when they think about drinking wine. So have you been there? Is this like a strictly long distance relationship, and how did you find?

Speaker 2:

them. I again, my aspect is I'm really good at building relationships, so I was actually. I travel everywhere to meet our winery. So I took myself to Turkey, the Antalya region, and I don't know how much you know about that region, but it's very hilly. So I'm driving around these curves which is like, oh, it's a two, three car lane, but it's only really used for one car. So I'm driving on this hilly side and I get up to the top and it's this beautiful winery and two brothers one's a chef, the others a geologist and he resurrects grapes that are like 200, 300 BC and, if you let him tell it, he taught the Italians. They taught the Italians how to make wine. That's neither here or there, but that's what I was like, how he states it. So it was one of those things to where everything that you see that comes.

Speaker 2:

What we bring in is direct partnerships. Through us, we build those relationships. I actually my source. I'm gonna go later this year to Georgia. We're gonna bring in a Georgian wine and I said, well, I'm like, oh my, does the guy speak? He was like he speaks no English. I spoke Russian the whole time. I'm like, oh my gosh, we're gonna make it happen he's like. So we go there and we partner together to go to different wineries that you would never hear about or bring in, because our goal is to bring more visibility to those lesser known areas, regions, wine, or even if you have a wine from a region that's well known, like an Italian mom, they have come in there. They have a very specific way that they treat the wine and which creates a whole different tasting palette in your mouth than normally you taste from other wineries in that region.

Speaker 1:

Oh gosh yeah, what an amazing opportunity to actually go to these places and see it all firsthand. I think that kind of puts a whole. It makes you, as the person selling it, take a whole different kind of ownership over that, because you care about it so much more than if it was just oh yeah, I'm gonna buy this wine from Podunk and see if it sells.

Speaker 2:

And we're gonna even take that to the next level this year and next year, to where we're gonna make it more interactive for people to understand more the backstory of these wineries that we partner with, because, again, the luxurious wine is an experience for us. We want you to really see and experience everything that we're encountering when we go to these wineries so you'll see the visuals of like at least a minute and a half or two minute video from that region in Turkey, with the winemakers telling you more about it, so it's not just experience through the eyes of Stephanie.

Speaker 1:

Right, right, love that. So if someone does want to do this, what are their options for them? Are there memberships? Are there different types of memberships, subscriptions? How would people approach that?

Speaker 2:

We are gonna have the subscription program later this year. Right now, the boxes can be purchased on a one-off basis.

Speaker 1:

So anyone can?

Speaker 2:

just go to the website and purchase a box and they can send it. Like I said, mostly people send it to gifts. It's like, oh, it's a housewarming, someone's having a bad time, and I will say that when you experience our box and a box is coming to you as well too, just because you'll see like of a luxurious we want to create such a tone to where you feel you open our boxes, you should feel like transported to and you should feel very special.

Speaker 2:

Oh my gosh you can transport it to a place. That's what we want to create and that's an experience for us to show more about the wines, because we want to show that we care about what we're bringing in and we're not just packaging just any old wine and just sending it to you. Tasting You're like I feel like this is not good. I know no wines, but I feel like this is not good. I want you to say like I don't know wines, but I feel like this is good wine. And that's the real aim to provide.

Speaker 1:

Oh my gosh, I just love that so much. I really am so in love with this whole concept. So this is amazing. So we are kind of starting to slowly wind things down. Already it feels like it flew by. So you encourage people to embrace change. Of course, do it anyway, even if you're scared. Do you want to add anything to that? Any words of wisdom that women can take away from this interview?

Speaker 2:

I think women have to use their voices more and not question their voices as much so your intuition. I feel like a lot of times, women have gotten away from their intuition and femininity, like, oh, it's a bad thing and it's like, no, this is actually a good thing. It puts you more in tune with yourself and your surroundings and we're seen and we're told to take that away, but you're actually taking away your power and the women. So getting in tune with that power will do you more justice than injustice. Yeah, and understanding that? No, you're feeling that way for a reason.

Speaker 2:

Your feelings are valid, and I always tell people as well too and this is very true is that your feelings are valid, but they may not always be true. That is fine. Those are two different things. Yeah, you can feel something and that's great. But a lot of times with women, we're so far away from our intuition. We're just focused on oh, we're feeling this and it's like no. But if you tuned into your intuition as well, it can validate what you're feeling versus if it's valid or invalid. Mm-hmm.

Speaker 1:

I love this so, so much, especially because I literally just had another one of those experiences where I know I should have trusted my intuition, and it's quickly dismissed as ah who turned her intuition intuition, you know, in quotation marks and and Mika went okay, well, fine, I'll dismiss it and I'll do this against my better judgment. And here we are four months later and it blew up in my face and my intuition told me back then don't do this. Exactly.

Speaker 2:

And that's what I had to. I had to tune into my intuition for even transitioning to one, like I said, I was then the whole at tech Mar-tech space and I'm like I was making good money doing it. You know, I could have done what I was doing in building relationships, chatting with my customers and accounts. I'm like this is just oh, I'm just dying slowly every day. I'm like I'm just, I'm not excited, I'm having panic attacks in the middle of the night. Slack is just going off, oh Slack. Oh my gosh.

Speaker 2:

So it was just one of those things to where I didn't want to live my life anymore. Within that aspect, could I have pushed through 100% what I have been satisfied? No, but could I have changed and pivot and say, okay, I'm going to listen to my intuition because my thought is telling me this is going to cost me, cause me more just grief than it is going to be from the money that I'm getting out of it. So why not pivot to something that brings you joy not necessarily happiness, but just joy cause? Happiness is fleeting and for me, having an avenue that turned into more hurdles than anything else. Plenty of hurdles along the way, plenty. Try getting some boxes from hungry.

Speaker 2:

Doing the whole Ukraine rush, plenty of hurdles and exchange rate just going up and down Extremely amount of hurdles, but the amount of self like joy that I feel from doing something and starting it and building it from scratch, that lets me know that I'm in the right direction and my intuition feels good, my spirit feels good, my internal feels good versus where I was. I internally did not feel that I appreciated the check every two weeks. Great money. I'm like I really I really don't want to do this. I don't want to have this meeting. I don't want to turn my camera on.

Speaker 2:

And that's an honest, very honest view of what it felt like when I was in a space that I knew no longer fit me, and thing about it is we don't give ourselves time or even with our intuition will let us know when we've outgrown a place or space, or either life will just show you something impactful that forces you to be out of that space. So that's one of the things. That's when you I feel like a lot of times your intuition, you miss your intuition with that, so life will just transition Like, oh, like. Yeah, I've told you several times you need to get out.

Speaker 1:

Shoulda listened yeah.

Speaker 2:

So intuition is a very big thing that I think that women need to hone and embrace more versus steering away from, because to have the balance and to be able, as a woman, to tap into that is super power.

Speaker 1:

Oh sure, yeah, 100%, thank you. That's so, so powerful, and I do hope our listeners take something away from this interview because I think it was beautiful. As our final thing and I know how impossible that sometimes can be Share with us, if you can, a white wine and a red wine that is in your inventory currently that you feel we got to try.

Speaker 2:

Oh, okay, I'm not going to say currently in my inventory, the cap within the 14 is just top notch. I will say it's really, really good. But I want to also give a little peek into West to come. So we have a partnership with Moselle, which is a winery right outside of Venice in Italy. So they actually roll their grapes in limestone so of course the vines have to go deeper to actually get the nutrients. So, with that being said, they have a very Thai wine which is played off the word Tokai because of the whole hungry and Italy battle that went about for the wording of Tokai. So it plays off of that. But it's so great, it's very smooth. But best way I can describe it as an enthusiast is to chardonnay, without all the butter and the wood for this, which comes with Chardonnay and I do not like Chardonnay. Apologies, for anyone here is a Chardonnay lover. It's not mine, not my cup of tea. Personally, I can understand if it is anyone else's, but it wants one of those things that keeps the Christmas and as well balance. I love it.

Speaker 2:

Also, highlight the Turkish wine that we have coming in is suffersing. So again, the resurrect grapes that are 200, 300 BC. So first and great is indigenous to the Turkish region and it's a well balanced, very low tannins, so very fruitful, and it can be enjoyed by anyone, whether you're a wine lover or not. So if you think of the equivalence of a nice table red wine for you to put on a table for anyone to enjoy, that would be your first and great. A lot of times I feel like, even when I've gone in places and they have the table wine, red wines is still a little too forward for someone that may not like reds. You want to transition or have a red on the table that's very equally balanced, not too smoky, not too much wood. So it's like this. That first in wine is perfect for that it's called first in wine. But the great is the first and great.

Speaker 1:

All right, wonderful, I'm looking forward to it. I'm excited for it. Yes, and to kind of come back to Chardonnay real quick before we sign off, I'm not a Chardonnay fan either. However, if you've ever tried any Pacific Northwest Chardonnays, they are actually quite different. Most so Pacific Northwesterners are very much into their un-oaked or only lightly-oaked Chardonnays, and so a lot of the winemakers in the Pacific Northwest have really learned to listen to that, and so a lot of the Chardonnays up here are actually much more on the bright side, little acidic, much more fruit forward and don't have that big buttery oakiness where you feel like I have to chew my way through wood before I get to the wine. Exactly, exactly.

Speaker 1:

Now let's look into those Northwestern Chardonnays one of these days.

Speaker 2:

I will, I will, I guess. We wines around the world, local, different countries. We partner with them all. The focus is to make sure that we bring those unknown wine and reason to the spotlight, because everyone knows how the wine industry is. They're just big players, they're Southern, they're R&D C Not to say there's anything bad about those players.

Speaker 2:

But within your independent winery, you feel as if your wine isn't getting either the visibility it needs or either is too demanding and you can't keep up with the demand.

Speaker 2:

So guess what happens the quality of your wine goes down. And then guess what happens the orders to the US start trickling down slowly, and then they also ask for such a huge amount of funding up front as well too. So it is one of those things that's a big burden. If you're an independent winery from another country, it's like, oh well, so we take the whole aspect of all of that difficulties that they do face, and that's why all the wines that we bring in can only be found through us. Yeah, so that's one of those things as well too. So we have a very specific niche and we are not. Our goal is not to be in any major grocery stores. We only work with four or five star restaurants. We only work with people that really appreciate wines, and that means that, as consumers you go onto our website, you can wholeheartedly know that you're tasting some very special wines that no one else has easy access to Right Wonderful People.

Speaker 1:

You're going to have to check it out. We're going to have this link, of course, in the show notes, together with the Medium article and the Nasdaq article and their Instagram handle. It's all going to be in the show notes. So, stephanie, I want you to stay on for just a moment after we say our goodbyes, but thank you so very much for joining us today. This was such a pleasure. I'm very, very happy that you guys reached out.

Speaker 2:

Thank you so much. I thoroughly enjoyed my time here and I just can't continue to wait to listen to even more of the podcast that you have, because I'm a fan. Thank you, I have fans.

Speaker 1:

Well, thank you everyone for listening in. I hope you're going to be back next week for more, and there's a lot more wonderful guests coming, and with all of that, all I have left to say is, of course, prost.