Contributed Article | The Barefoot Spirit

Why Brand integrity Matters and How to Get It

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Fri, 21 Feb 2020 00:09:39 +0000

There’s so much noise out there, you don’t have the luxury to try to be all things to all people. You must focus on the core value you offer to your customer.

We are successful consumer brand developers, but we made a ton of mistakes before we finally achieved our success.

In our impatience to achieve a positive cash flow as soon as possible, we diluted our brand message several times. We were desperately trying to find the perfect product-market fit that would please our buyers.

To read the complete article, please visit The Business Journals

Who We Are

Michael Houlihan and Bonnie Harvey co-authored the New York Times bestselling business book, The Barefoot Spirit: How Hardship, Hustle, and Heart Built America’s #1 Wine Brand. The book has been selected as recommended reading in the CEO Library for CEO Forum, the C-Suite Book Club, and numerous university classes on business and entrepreneurship. It chronicles their humble beginnings from the laundry room of a rented Sonoma County farmhouse to the board room of E&J Gallo, who ultimately acquired their brand and engaged them as brand consultants. Barefoot is now the world’s largest wine brand.

Beginning with virtually no money and no wine industry experience, they employed innovative ideas to overcome obstacles, create new markets and forge strategic alliances. They pioneered Worthy Cause Marketing and performance-based compensation. They built an internationally bestselling brand and received their industry’s “Hot Brand” award for several consecutive years.

They offer their Guiding Principles for Success (GPS) to help entrepreneurs become successful. Their book, The Entrepreneurial Culture: 23 Ways To Engage and Empower Your People, helps corporations maximize the value of their human resources.

Currently they travel the world leading workshops, trainings, & keynoting at business schools, corporations, conferences. They are regular media guests and contributors to international publications and professional journals. They are C-Suite Network Advisors & Contributing Editors. Visit their popular brand building site at www.consumerbrandbuilders.com.

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

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These Business Tasks Should be Outsourced

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Wed, 05 Feb 2020 18:00:36 +0000

As successful brand builders, we are often asked, “What is the biggest single mistake that new consumer product brand builders make?”

Our answer is always the same: “They focus on production and not on sales!”

Unfortunately, the first thing that goes through most startups’ heads is something like, “Oh, if I’m going to produce and sell a new branded product, I need a factory, an office, a big staff, trucks, warehouses, and several in-house professionals.” Then they write up a business plan and try to get financing to pay for the whole thing.

Plus, they cover a runway for six months to a year to achieve a positive cash flow.

To read the complete article, please visit The Busines Journals

Who We Are

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

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You Build Customer Loyalty by Ditching the Act

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Thu, 21 Nov 2019 20:03:50 +0000

In Hawaii, they say, “If you cross someone’s property on the way to the beach, be the first to smile and wave.”

This is great advice on so many levels. It shows that you are willing to take the first step to give the other person permission to take the second. And that’s how defense barriers come down and friendly relationships follow.

In our digital world we find ourselves vying for attention in a sea of overly simplified sound bites. We have a tendency to become minimalist as a form of efficiency. “Just keep it to business,” seems to be the order of the day. And its corollary, “Put your best foot forward,” seems to make sure that our image is photoshopped to perfection.

It seems ironic today, with the big trend toward transparency, credibility, and authenticity, that many of us have found ourselves clothed in pretentions that inadvertently create barriers to the very trust we seek in business.

To read the complete article, please visit The Business Journals

Who We Are

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

The post You Build Customer Loyalty by Ditching the Act appeared first on The Barefoot Spirit.

How to Avoid Corporate Blockage Strategies and Keep the Ball Rolling

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Fri, 18 Oct 2019 15:58:27 +0000

Has this ever happened to you? After a series of meetings with the big organization, suddenly there’s a new person in the room, they monopolize the meeting, and set the progress back to square one.

“I’m not convinced we should do this!” they say, and then spend the rest of the meeting trying to shoot down the proposal.

Translation? They were unprepared for the meeting and are using this tactic as a smokescreen.

Different strokes

Entrepreneurs must be “hustlative.” They must be thoroughly briefed. The must keep a consistent and comprehensive view. They must stay focused. Their income depends on it because their future is not guaranteed.

To read the complete article, please visit The Business Journals

Who We Are

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

The post How to Avoid Corporate Blockage Strategies and Keep the Ball Rolling appeared first on The Barefoot Spirit.

From the Crowd – To the Crowd

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Wed, 04 Sep 2019 00:17:04 +0000

Problem: Convey Business Principles So They Will Be Used – Solution: Audio Theater

What if someone shows you a video of a person walking into an office and sitting down in a chair? You see it all. There’s nothing left for the imagination. All your thinking has been done for you. Every detail has been carefully thought out and presented on the screen.

Now, what if someone says, “Bill walked into an office and pulled up a chair”? Immediately, your brain searches your memory for a mental image of an office and a chair. What have you done? You have participated in the story by using your mental energy to grab those images from your memory and insert them like props into the story. This is a form of experiential learning. Now you are “tagging” the action and the outcome within your own personal mental files. This mental procurement exercise will make it easier for your to recollect the story and, more importantly, the points about what happened to Bill.

To read the complete article, please visit Crowdsourcing Week

Who We Are

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

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Maybe Brick-and-Mortar Retail is Just Changing, Not Dying

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Wed, 28 Aug 2019 23:55:20 +0000

If you were born between 1997 and 2012 you are referred to as “Gen Z.” Makes you wonder what’s next, since “Z” is the last letter of the alphabet.

But that aside, this new generation prefers to shop in old fashioned brick-and-mortar stores. Why? Because it’s entertaining and fun. Does this mean the death of retail has been greatly exaggerated? We think so.

What’s interesting here is that, according to a new study by Morning Consult, “(They) will be the largest, most ethnically diverse, best educated, and most financially powerful generation ever.”

Gen Z‘ers were spending their first dime when two-day delivery was common. They were making their first purchases when the convenience of home delivery was the latest thing. So, why didn’t they jump on the online bandwagon?

Is there something missing in e-commerce that these first timers noticed? Was it that when they looked at these two shopping experiences side by side, neither was new nor shiny? They were simply what was available. And when they looked at these two options, why did they choose bricks and mortar?

To read the complete article, please visit The Business Journals

Who We Are

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

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THE NEXT STEP IN BUSINESS AUDIO? ASK THE CROWD!

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Thu, 08 Aug 2019 15:59:03 +0000

STORY AS COMMUNICATION, FROM CAVEMAN TO WALKMAN

When humans listen to a story something amazing happens. each individual in a crowd reaches into their own personal memories to create and complete the scenes in which the action takes place. In other words, they source the props from their own mental inventory. When this happens, they tag the story to be more easily recalled. why? Because they had something to do with its telling. They were interacting by embellishing the scenes with their imagination, they were involved in a process of co-creation.

Pre-literate indigenous people would hand down their history and the principles they had learned about survival, the environment, medicine, and even virtues through story. Fast forward 8,000 years, we are rediscovering the power of story to convey principles. We, the audience, hear the story and draw out the take-aways, principles, and lessons. Through using our imagination to complete the scenes, and even identify with the characters, we can recall and use the lessons in our own businesses and life! This is a type of experiential learning.

PRESCRIPTIVE TEXT

Without story, business books, especially, can seem one dimensional, prescriptive, and even patronizing. The principles are all laid out for you in a logical construct-like outline. “Here are the 3 things to do, the 5 things never to do, and the 15 things your customer wants from you.” Even if the points are made using examples, the mind glazes over by the end of chapter two. And the retention and application of the principles being shared is questionable.

With the renaissance of story, we are reconnecting with what our ancient ancestors instinctively knew all along: if you want your listeners to remember and use the message, wrap a convincing story around it with compelling characters overcoming challenges using the principles you wish to convey.

To read the complete article, please visit Crowd Sourcing Week

Who We Are

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

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How Crowdsourcing Built The World’s #1 Wine Brand

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Mon, 08 Jul 2019 14:39:35 +0000

Hi! We are Michael and Bonnie, the founders of the world’s largest wine brand. Did you know that we used crowdsourcing to build Barefoot Wine? Sure, it wasn’t called “Crowdsourcing” back then, but it was the secret to our success!

If Necessity is the Mother of Invention, Being Undercapitalized is Surely the Father!

It all started with an opportunity to turn a debt into a business. Our friend, a grape grower, hadn’t been paid for his grapes for three years. The only thing we could get out of the winery that owed him the money was a trade: debt for goods and services. The goods were bulk wine, and the services were bottling services.

We were undercapitalized and astonishingly deficient in industry knowledge. Then, all of a sudden, we had $300,000 worth of grapes and bottling services, but no clue as to what to do to convert those assets into cash. We were humbled. We started asking questions, lots of questions. We didn’t know it at the time, but we were crowdsourcing.

To read the complete article, please visit Crowd Sourcing Week

Who We Are

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

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Breakthroughs Are Rarely as Spontaneous As They Seem

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Wed, 26 Jun 2019 13:28:45 +0000

Today it seems like we are hearing about a new breakthrough every day.

It’s easy to get the idea that these breakthroughs are instantaneous bolts of clarity from very gifted people. Once in a while there is a sudden stroke of genius that leaves us all in awe. But most of the time the real breakthroughs are years in coming and the result of much cooperation and analysis.

Sure, there are the “Why don’t we just…” moments, but most practical and lasting breakthroughs require a team. Here’s what we experienced with several breakthroughs that occurred in our business.

1. Other industry practices

We had a problem with keeping our advertising signs up on the supermarket shelves. The competition, or the cleaning people, would take them down regularly. Sometimes we couldn’t even get our marketing materials to the shelf. They were thrown in the dumpster by our distributors. We were spread so thin we couldn’t cover all the stores with our own limited staff.

One day we noticed that some soup cans had an award medal affixed right to the can to communicate value to the shoppers. It took us two years to work out the mechanical issues necessary to put our award stickers on our bottles, on the bottling line. That meant that finally we had at least one piece of merchandising material that made it to the shelf every time and couldn’t be removed.

To read the complete article, please visit The Business Journals

Who We Are

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

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5 Tips to Sell More This Year

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Thu, 28 Mar 2019 16:33:14 +0000

Want to sell more this year?

Of course, you do! Without sales, you don’t need production or even marketing. In fact, your whole company is supported by sales.

We like to say, “Regardless of what their organization chart says, all companies only have only two divisions, sales and sales support.” In other words, if you’re not in sales, you’re in sales support. You are there to support sales.

So, how can you improve sales this year? Here are our top five tips to do just that.

1) Believe in your product

Sales is frustrating more times than not. The sales cycle always take a lot longer than you expect. Meanwhile, you’ve got bills hungry for bucks. It can get downright discouraging.

What keeps you going? A deep belief in your product and the benefits it will provide your customers.

But it’s not enough for you to believe in your product. Your whole sales support staff has to believe as well. It’s not only what keeps them going — it’s what keeps your people engaged in the sales process. It’s what encourages them to come up with solutions to sales challenges. Everyone they talk to will know they believe in your product.

To read the complete article, please visit The Business Journals

Who We Are

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

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