Barefoot Cellars | The Barefoot Spirit

The EnTRUEpreneurship Podcast

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Wed, 16 Sep 2020 22:08:01 +0000

This week on The EnTRUEpreneurship Podcast, Wes interviews Michael Houlihan and Bonnie Harvey — co-founders at Barefoot Cellars. Over the course of its 34-year history, Barefoot has grown into one of the fastest-growing and award-winning brands in the global wine industry. Its offerings have expanded from two simple red and white blends to a large variety of wines, champagnes, spritzers, and, most recently, hard seltzers.

If you’ve walked into any corner store, liquor store, or supermarket, you’ve come in contact with Barefoot products, yet the brand had a slow rise to global prominence. Michael and Bonnie were two young, ambitious business consultants who stumbled into an opportunity, sought to fill a market gap, and were too far in to turn back when things got really hard. The Barefoot story is an inspiring tale for anyone — entrepreneur or not — and this week, it is told in full.

To listen to the interview, please visit The EnTRUEpreneurship Podcast

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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Happy 34th Anniversary to M&B!

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Thu, 18 May 2017 17:00:18 +0000

We met on May 20th 1983 at a rock & roll club in Sonoma County, California. Our attraction to each was immediate, and we have been together as a couple ever since.

In 1985 we began working together, doing the research required to start our new business, Barefoot Cellars.

Couples love being in love! And business partners rely on the expertise of their partners! But, can these two ideal relationships be simultaneously successful with the same couple?

Folks ask us this question all the time: How do you make it work? Our first response is, “Kids, don’t try this at home!” For most couples, it generally doesn’t work well at all. But for those rare couples who successfully have both a romantic relationship as well as a business relationship, it is glorious!

We can’t accurately predict which couples will succeed at both, nor can we say exactly what they should do to keep both relationships healthy. But we will share with you what we did and didn’t do that worked for us.

First of all, we had respect for each other’s intelligence and motives. That enabled us to appreciate the other’s opinions and suggestions without wondering if they were self-serving. We were both headed toward the same goals, although on different tracks. That difference of opinion was welcomed! Two heads are better than one, they say.

Fortunately for us, we had different skill sets. Michael was good at seeing the big picture. Bonnie was keen on the details. Michael could talk easily with all sorts of people and boldly spoke in front of large crowds of salespeople. Bonnie worked well on a one-to-one basis with attorneys and accountants. She scheduled the bottlings, ordered all the necessary supplies, and oversaw the production at the winery. He made friends with everyone who touched our product along the way to (and including) the end user. She bottled it and he sold it.

Well, it wasn’t quite as easy as that, but by dividing up the responsibilities required and matching them with our natural talents, there was less disagreement. We weren’t looking over each other’s shoulders to make sure things were exactly this way or that. We agreed to allow decisions to be made by the other without interference.

The major goals were set by both of us. We preferred to go to a retreat, so we would not be interrupted during this essential planning phase. It wasn’t always possible. However, two of our favorite retreats were the island of Kauai and the historic Ben Bow Inn in Northern California. By removing ourselves from the day-to-day challenges, we could set our sights on the bigger picture – how to get from where we were to where we wanted to be.

These retreats were not only for business but for our personal goal setting as well. We keep “Goal Books” that go back to 1996! They include subjects such as home, social, spiritual, and health, as well as financial and business. These retreats always brought us closer together both romantically and professionally. We would plan them many months in advance, and get non-refundable tickets so we would not be tempted to cancel due to the “too-much-going-on-to-leave” syndrome.

We have identified many more ways of living happily as a romantic couple in business together, and we are planning a retreat for such couples at our home in west Sonoma County. Let us know if you are interested in joining us. It will be eye-opening! You will leave with a better understanding of just what it takes to keep your mate as the love of your life as well as your business partner. We know. We’ve been there, done that, and MADE the t-shirt! And best of all, we are still madly in love.

Who We Are

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

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Training Magazine – Teach Employees to think like Owners by Scaling Down to Two Divisions

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Thu, 03 Mar 2016 19:10:48 +0000

As a leader, you’re hyper-focused on your company’s productivity, profits, and growth. Wouldn’t it be nice if your employees were as focused on those factors as you and the company’s other executives? Sure, they do what you tell them. They come in every day and perform every task within their job descriptions. But often that’s where the buck stops. If a problem lands in their laps that isn’t what they consider to be “their responsibility,” they pass it on to the next guy or they bring it to you expecting a solution.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. You can teach your employees to think and act outside of their job descriptions—to think, in point of fact, like owners! At Barefoot Cellars, we found that the key to turning worker bees into solutions-oriented entrepreneurs was simplifying our structure into just two divisions: sales and sales support.

To read the complete article, please visit Training Magazine

Who We Are

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

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Costco Connection Article April 2014

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Mon, 07 Apr 2014 20:34:51 +0000

In Growing Barefoot Cellars into a national, brand, Costco members Michael Houlihan and Bonnie Harvey learned many lessons from the school of hard knocks, detailed in their book, The Barefoot Spirit: How Hardship, Hustle, and Heart Built America’s #1 Wine Brand. To read the complete article, please read below. Click on the image to make it bigger.

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How the Irish Got Barefoot

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Sat, 22 Mar 2014 14:53:28 +0000

Over one hundred years ago Michael’s grandfather, John Francis Houlihan, left his hometown of Limerick, Ireland, heading for the port city of Cork where he boarded a cattle steamer bound for America. The only passage he could afford was above deck, so in order to stay warm he had to huddle near the smokestack. It was there that he met and fell in love with Nelly Donohue from Donegal. When they finally arrived at Ellis Island they were incarcerated by United States Customs in separate dormitories, where they remained until they could document gainful employment for themselves inside the United States.

John Francis, being a horseman by trade, was able to secure a job cleaning the recently constructed Sutro Stables in San Francisco, California. That’s where the newly created San Francisco Police Department, which replaced the Vigilante Committee, kept their horses and those of the mayor and other public officials. Then, after two more months of correspondence he was finally able to secure a job for Nelly as a washerwoman and cook in a rooming house on Fell Street in San Francisco across from acres of sand dunes that would later become Golden Gate Park.

Nelly and John were married in the 1890s shortly after they moved to San Francisco. They both worked very hard to save enough to make a down payment on a flat in the then Irish ghetto of San Francisco known as the Mission District. Nelly did laundry and John was promoted from cleaning stables to Head Stable Keeper. In 1906 a terrific earthquake hit San Francisco and broke the underground gas mains, causing many huge fires, including one that destroyed Sutro Stables. John Francis, being a resourceful Irishman, only had time to save a few horses from the flames, so he chose to save the mayor’s prized Percherons. The mayor was so grateful that he asked John what he could do to show his appreciation, to which he replied, “I want to be the police officer who walks the beat in my own neighborhood,” and that’s what he did until he retired in 1941. During those years he watched the ghetto change, from Irish who had lifted themselves up by their own bootstraps into civil service jobs, to Italians who were refugees from WWI.

John Francis knew everyone in the Mission, so when Prohibition came to America, John was quick to make peace with the Italian families who brought their family tradition of winemaking with them from the Old Country. He saw the Great Depression and both world wars. He spoke with a thick brogue ‘til the day he died at the ripe old age of 98, surrounded by his wife Nelly, his only son John Charles and his four grandchildren, John, Michael, Mary Ellen, and William.

John Francis and Nelly used their savings to give their only child, John Charles, the best education possible. He graduated from the University of San Francisco School of Law and married Emily L’Heureux, third generation Californian. John Charles went on to have a brilliant legal career and was instrumental in the development of containerized shipping. He helped build the Port of Oakland, which was one of the first container ports in the world. Shipping containers revolutionized world commerce by cutting losses and insurance costs to a fraction of what they had been when cargo was loaded and unloaded by hand. They go from factory, to truck, to ship, to rail, sealed and safe. John Charles traveled throughout the world promoting the idea of containerized shipping ports, and today these containers are a part of our lives.

One of John Charles’ sons, Michael, got into the wine business with Bonnie Harvey in 1986. They were put off by the snobbery and the pretension of the wine business and wanted to create a product that had a more friendly and approachable image. They named their winery “Barefoot Cellars” in memory of the way grapes were originally crushed, barefoot, by those Italian families in their bathtubs in the Mission District. Plus, in California, being barefoot was a sign of fun and freedom. It meant you had the day off, the weather was fine, and you were relaxed and happy at the beach, enjoying life. Barefoot Wines became very popular in California especially with the young at heart.

By 2005, Barefoot Wines were being sold across the U.S. and in 28 foreign countries. When the wines finally made it to Ireland, they came in through the same port Michael’s grandfather left as a young man, and in the same shipping containers Michael’s father, John Charles, helped to promote.

… And That’s How the Irish Got Barefoot! Cheers!

Who We Are

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

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Back to School – Back to Entrepreneurship

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Sun, 08 Sep 2013 02:35:20 +0000

The prospects for self-employment have never been brighter. Information is at your fingertips. Rents, labor, and interest rates are at an all-time low. Big corporations, stifled by their own structures, outmoded compensation plans and legal constrictions, are hungry to acquire new and innovative ideas from the outside.

The prospects are great and the opportunity is now, but can entrepreneurship actually be taught? Certainly, the skills and tools that, from our experience, are absolutely necessary to be a successful entrepreneur can be taught. More and more business colleges across the nation that are creating schools and centers of entrepreneurship agree.

This fall thousands of students of entrepreneurship return to school to work on their degrees in this relatively new course of study. But who will they impress with a degree in entrepreneurship? They have just earned a degree in self-employment! This is a truly different kind of student, not the kind who wants a degree because it’s a job requirement. They plan to build themselves their own job! They are studying entrepreneurship because they want to be successful in their own businesses.

When we started Barefoot Cellars, we didn’t have the benefit of the entrepreneurial education now being offered across the country. It would have made our journey smoother and shorter. Not long after we sold Barefoot, the Great Recession hit. We had never lived through anything like it. We watched businesses fold, money dry up, and people lose their homes.

It was heartbreaking to see what was happening to our country. Many of the middle management jobs that provided entry-level positions for business grads had vanished. Outsourcing and automation took their toll on the workforce.

We wanted to do something about it, but we felt powerless. Then we did what we always do in a crisis: we took inventory! When we looked closely at what we had to offer and what was going on around us, we discovered we possessed some powerful assets we could share. We had a successful entrepreneurial experience. We were living in a country that had to rebuild itself the same way it did after the Great Depression, the World War, and the bursting of the Dot-com bubble – through entrepreneurship. Self-employment suddenly began to look like the best chance of employment.

It was then that we decided to stop procrastinating and write our book.

But, what could we offer that was yet to be taught in schools? We decided on the set of guiding principles that we learned during our 20 years building our brand. These are the business philosophies and standards that saved us so many times. We conveyed those concepts in fun stories about a popular national brand familiar to most people. We wrote The Barefoot Spirit to inspire, encourage, and empower a whole new generation of entrepreneurs.

Our intention was to write a book that would be required reading in the new schools of entrepreneurship as a modern case study of a start-from-nothing American success story. It is filled with all the bumps, mistakes, and missteps that happen in the real world. We are happy that many schools are adopting The Barefoot Spirit as a guide and an entertaining lesson in what to expect after you graduate and go out there and really do it. We like to think it fills in the gaps between learning how to write a business plan, a budget, or an application for a business loan, and what else it takes to be successfully self-employed. We wanted to give them tools they can use.

After many decades out of school, we’re going back to school again, only this time it is as thought leaders in entrepreneurship. We will be speaking to thousands of students this fall in Florida, Georgia, Texas, Illinois, and Indiana. We are proud to be making a difference in the lives of these courageous young people who hold our country’s future in their hands.

Who We Are

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

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Achieve Success On Your Own Terms

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Sun, 28 Jul 2013 02:47:48 +0000

Creating your own terms can better define your niche, distinguish your offering from the rest, and lead your product to success. When we started Barefoot Wine, we didn’t know enough about the conventions of the wine business to define our product within the conventional categories. Besides, there wasn’t a particular category for what we were doing. We didn’t understand how controversial it would be if we created our own category or phrases, so we did just that!

Sure, we could have simply tried to fit into an existing group like “fighting varietals,” but our wines were more than that. We were producing wine as a staple. We wanted to be what the French called ‘Vin d’table’ (table wine) or even what they called ‘Vin d’Pays’ (country wine). We wanted a category that defined an everyday (week night) wine that was a staple for our customers. We also wanted a term that was more descriptive of brand loyalty.

So we created our own term, “personal house wine.” And, boy, did we take flack from the industry for that term! They said, “It can’t be called ‘house wine’ because everybody knows that’s the term used in restaurants (restaurant ‘house wine’).” We said, “But if we go to your house and open your fridge, we would see the brand of wine you buy on a regular basis – that’s your personal house wine.” Several years later, the entire industry began referring to a staple, everyday drinking wine as “personal house wine.”

We also wanted a term that defined the price at which the majority of wine sold. The terms at the time were “average price” and the “mean price.” But we wanted a phrase that clearly defined the price point at which wine sold the fastest. This element of speed gave us the idea to use the term, “velocity price point.” The term was so descriptive; folks began using it almost immediately.

So we created a category and term that fit our product – “velocity price point, personal house wine.”

Then we were challenged by the federal label approval process. At the time, the only term available on government approved labels for a négociant was “cellared by … ” Only producers with full winery licenses could claim the term, “produced by … ” But we wanted a term that conveyed more control over the production than simply buying wine in bulk and bottling it. After all, we had a skilled winemaker and although we did not as yet have a complete set of winery licenses, we did fine-tune the aroma, color, acidity, mouth feel, taste profile, blending and finishing of our wines. So we created the word “vinted.” It wasn’t in the dictionary, but it had the sound we wanted and used the first part of the word “vintner.” It ended in “ed” so it implied that something was being done, and it fit what we did well. So we applied for a label approval that read “Vinted by Barefoot Cellars.” Well, the first government inspector denied it because he never saw it before. When we reapplied a few days later, we got a different inspector and she approved it because her agency had never denied it before. Today, the term “vinted” is widely used on wine labels.

There was a time before terms like “social network,” “dairy substitute,” and “personal house wine” were used. So today, when we speak to students of entrepreneurship across the country, we encourage them to create their own terms, define their own niches, and be leaders in their own new categories. What is your new term for defining your product or service? It just might catch on. Don’t be afraid to name your own tune!

Who We Are

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

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Women Entrepreneurs Radio with Deborah Bailey

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Thu, 18 Jul 2013 16:03:24 +0000

Bonnie Harvey is the co-founder of Barefoot Cellars along with partner Michael Houlihan. She was Vice President and “The Original Foot” for 19 years. There she had a wide variety of duties, doing whatever was necessary to operate the business. While Michael’s role was “big picture visionary,” Bonnie translated his ideas into workable processes and displayed a genius for managing the millions of details that come with a start-up. She proved to possess a rare combination of creativity and business savvy that served Barefoot well.

In the early days of the brand, Bonnie was responsible for bottling oversight, supply inventory and label design—in fact, the famous footprint is actually hers! Later as Barefoot grew, she focused on overview and direction of the business, setting company goals, and attending to Board of Director matters. She managed all financial aspects of the business, oversaw legal relations and compliance, and edited countless press materials, presentations, official manuals and other documents.

To read more and listen to the complete audio interview, please visit The Secrets of Success Women Entrepreneurs Radio

Who We Are

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

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The Barefoot Spirit is a Strong One; Interview with Michael Houlihan

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 17:00:56 +0000

Michael Luchies, Yahoo! Contributor Network

Mar 11, 2013

Michael Houlihan and Bonnie Harvey are two of the nicest people I have had the pleasure of talking with, and they just so happen to be incredibly successful and world renowned entrepreneurs. Michael and Bonnie founded and grew the Barefoot Wine brand, which is now the #1 wine brand in the US and one of the best selling and most recognizable wine brands in the world. Did the dynamic duo start their highly successful wine brand because they had millions to invest and an abundance of knowledge and experience in the industry? Not exactly.Michael and Bonnie started the brand in their laundry room in 1985 with practically no money and no experience. Their journey is an entrepreneurial success story that reminds us that the American dream is still alive and well.

I was invited into their beautiful California home via Skype not long after I had the privilege to hear Michael give a keynote address at the 2013 USASBE National Conference in San Francisco. Although I was not able to meet Michael at the conference, I took his business card off of the dinner table and tossed it into my briefcase. It wouldn’t hurt just to reach out to him right? Much to my surprise, this successful entrepreneur immediately responded and after one email he was asking what time would work for me to meet!

There is a lot that young entrepreneurs can learn from this founding couple and their struggles and success. The following is an interview I conducted with Michael Houlihan about his entrepreneurial journey, his upcoming book, tips and advice for young entrepreneurs, and more.

Michael Luchies: Did you have any entrepreneurial endeavors before Barefoot Cellars?

Michael Houlihan: Yes

Bonnie had a company called “In Care Of” [c/o] where she paid bills for people who had the money, but not the time. She also had an office management consulting practice where she did everything for small businesses from office organization and collections, to oversight of outsourced vendors.

I had several businesses including the first men and women’s hair cutting shop [Great Lengths], a stainless steel storage tank rental business, and a small business consulting company focused on relations with government entities.

ML: Wow! I guess it is safe to say that Barefoot Cellars was not your first rodeo. What failures have you faced as an entrepreneur and how did you recover and learn from these failures?

MH: When we started Barefoot Cellars, we thought that if we had gold medal winning wine at an unbelievable price, it would sell itself so we expanded out of California into Washington and Hawaii, but we soon found out that we had to physically be in every store to keep the product in stock. We thought the distributor and the retailer would take care of it.

On the contrary, they were not familiar with the brand and it didn’t have a selling history in their store, so they let it run out and get replaced with a competitor’s product. It cost us more than what we were making to make periodic trips to Washington and Hawaii just to get the reorders and to basically do what we thought was the distributors’ and the retailers’ job. We pulled out of Washington and Hawaii for 2 years and didn’t go back until we could afford to hire a representative of each one of those territories. We learned that we needed to have representatives in every market to maintain constant vigilance over our products at retail so that they stayed in the stores long enough to establish a track record of sales.

ML: You were able to create an incredibly successful business with your wife. What advice would you have for someone considering going into business with a family member or loved one?

MH: Respect the other party for their skill set. Do not try to micromanage them. Realize that their opinions, which may be contrary to yours, are in your own and your companies’ best interest. Have a separate place where you conduct business, even if it’s a laundry room, garage, or small in home office. It’s best to work in separate spaces. Don’t talk business in the bedroom. Plan several non-business related vacations every year in advance and buy the tickets in January.

ML: Thank you for that, really good advice. If there is one thing you could change about your entrepreneurial journey, what would it be?

MH: We should have gotten started much sooner, like when we were in school. Just conducting business is such an education. The sooner that you get the hard knocks over with, the better. Unfortunately, they weren’t teaching entrepreneurship when we were in school.

ML: Your book is titled “The Barefoot Spirit: How Hardship, Hustle, and Heart Built America’s #1 Wine Brand.” Explain how heart and hustle are important for an entrepreneur:

MH: Heart is several things. First and foremost, it’s the belief that you have in your success. That belief is the foundation of the tenacity that is required to keep on going, even though you take some hits. Heart is also the way you treat people. By putting yourself in the other guys shoes whether they are employees, creditors, vendors, or customers, your empathy with their needs and concerns is transmitted through your products and service. Lastly, Heart is the causes you hold dear as an individual and how you use your business to forward those causes through public statements, corporate behavior, and the support for non profits.

Hustle is all about how fast you move to take advantage of opportunities, dodge adversity, and solve challenges. When you are an entrepreneur, you have to look for, and surround yourself with other team members who have hustle. They are determined, directed, and light on their feet. You and your companies’ ability to make quick changes and adjustments is the key to survival in the first few years.

ML: How did hardship help build your company?

MH: Probably our greatest asset was being undercapitalized. It forced us to be resourceful and creative. When you start a business with a large investment, you tend to throw money at every problem because you can. When you’re undercapitalized, you must solve problems in new ways, many of which are truly revolutionary and can actually reform your very industry. We discovered concepts like Worthy Cause Marketing because we simply didn’t have enough money for conventional advertising. By supporting non profits in the hope that their members would have a social reason to buy our products, we discovered a more efficient way of getting the word out and creating customer loyalty. Even when we had funds for commercial advertising, we decided to forego it in favor of supporting worthy causes.

ML: What is your most important piece of advice to young entrepreneurs?

MH: Research and understand how your end-user gains access to your product. Understand every job along the distribution system and be prepared to do it yourself before you finalize your product design, packaging, marketing program or budget. It’s not about your product. It’s about whether or not it can be purchased. Be sure to have, raise, or earn enough money to pay for vigilant sales representatives in every market.

ML: How did you come up with the decision to sell Barefoot Spirits? Was that decision a hard one to make?

MH: Of course it was difficult to say goodbye to a brand that was “our baby.” However, when you go into business, you have to decide why you are going into business. Is it to just create a job? If so, you give up a 9-5 for a 5-9. You go into debt to expand it and you can become your own worse boss. If you go into business to leave a legacy, then you are assuming that your children will run it with the same care and devotion that you put into building it. You run the risk that they would rather have the money than continue to operate the business. Or worse, run it into the ground. If you go into business as we did, to create and monetize brand equity, then you are building a value, which one day will be sufficient to attract an acquirer. The challenge for us, in the case of Barefoot Cellars, was to find a company that would keep The Barefoot Spirit alive and grow the brand beyond where we took it. We were fortunate to have found a family-owned company who could actually execute a 5 year plan. Barefoot’s success or failure would reflect heavily on us and our reputation. As speakers, writers, and consultants, Barefoot’s success since the acquisition has increased our credibility.

ML: What is next for you and Bonnie?

MH: We are traveling throughout the country visiting the various Schools of Entrepreneurship. Through our blogs at www.thebrandauthority.net and www.barefootwinefounders.com, we are offering free advice to especially young people who are starting or growing their own businesses and brands. We are using our considerable experience and credentials to teach what we call The Barefoot Spirit. These are the foundational guiding principles that one must subscribe to as basic business standards to make the right decisions and be successful in the long run. We will be guests on TV, print, radio, and podcasts across the country promoting our book, The Barefoot Spirit. We help start-ups and small businesses as consultants and advisors. We also work with large corporations who want to benefit by the entrepreneurial spirit. Look for more books, webinars, speaking, and blogs from us in the future.

Summary
I want to personally thank Michael Houlihan and Bonnie Harvey for meeting with me on Skype, and to Michael for doing this great and insightful interview. Little did I know that Entrepreneur magazine would soon be featuring Michael and Bonnie in their magazine. He didn’t tell me “Sorry kid, I don’t have time for this little interview.” He graciously accepted my invitation and could not have been nicer. I already had a lot of respect for what Bonnie and Michael have been able to do as the entrepreneurs that built such a dominant brand. After speaking with them, I now have a deep appreciation for them as both entrepreneurs and as genuine and selfless individuals, both of who truly represent The Barefoot Spirit.

Who We Are

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

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Santa Barbara News-Press Article on Michael Houlihan

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 17:32:28 +0000

By SCOTT STEEPLETON NEWS-PRESS CITY EDITOR

March 7, 2013 5:59 AM

When he returns to Santa Barbara for a speaking engagement this week, Barefoot Cellars co-founder Michael Houlihan will be treading familiar territory.

He attended City College 1965-67 and it was here, in the early stages of Barefoot, that Mr. Houlihan, who founded the brand with partner Bonnie Harvey, pounded the pavement making the sales.

Mr. Houlihan and Ms. Harvey will speak at the Scheinfeld Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at City College at 4:30 p.m. Friday, the first of 10 stops on a nationwide tour to get people fired up about starting a business and to promote their upcoming book, “Barefoot Spirt: How Hardship, Hustle and Heart Built a Bestselling Wine,” which comes out in May.

Admission is free, but seats are limited. Attendees will get access to the eBook version of “The Barefoot Spirit.”

The wine’s roots date to 1965, when San Francisco writer and reporter Davis Bynum created Barefoot Bynum Burgundy at his home in the Bay Area. In 1986, Mr. Houlihan and Ms. Harvey came aboard and Barefoot Cellars was born – in their home.

From 1987 to 1995, Mr. Houlihan personally serviced every account in Santa Barbara.

In 2005, the brand was sold to E. & J. Gallo Winery, the world’s largest family-owned winery and the largest exporter of California wine.

In 2007, Barefoot and Surfrider teamed up to create the Barefoot Wine Beach Rescue Project, a nationwide initiative to keep our beaches “barefoot-friendly.” Each summer, the Project goes coast-to-coast, calling on community volunteers and local Surfrider members to come out and clean their shores.

Not bad for a couple who knew nothing about the business when they started out.

“It wasn’t easy, man,” Mr. Houlihan said in a phone interview Wednesday.

But it was clear from the beginning who would do what.

“Bonnie is very good with what I call minutiae,” Mr. Houlihan said with a chuckle. “But that covers things like money and legal and contracts. She also ran the bottling lines and was in charge of all promotion at the beginning. I am the swashbuckling sword-wielder. I do things like sales and marketing, long-term planning.”

“We respect each other for our different skill sets,” he added.

While the company has gone through lots of change, Ms. Harvey’s footprint is still the label iconography for Barefoot Cellars, which includes still and sparkling wines.

In the talks, as well as in their new book, the couple speaks to an audience much broader than people who want to get into the wine business.

“The three things you gotta know in any business is personnel management, distribution management and cash flow management,” said Mr. Houlihan, whose varied background includes productivity and process improvement.

“You have to know how to treat people so you can maintain and grow relationships. Also you have to know strategic allies. ‘Who’s going to make out if we make out?’ ”

He puts a premium on distribution management. After all, you could have the best idea for a product in the world, but if you can’t get it to customers, what good is it?

“Warehouses are full of good ideas that are sitting unsold. I’m sorry, but it’s more about distribution than the product or how good it is for the price.”

These days, Mr. Houlihan is a principal in the wine consulting business Houlihan and Jones, and he and Ms. Harvey produce free business blogs on two sites every week, www.barefootwinefounders.com andwww.thebrandauthority.net .

Their book is available for download at both sites.

While his work in the wine business these days is more focused on helping others make their brands successful, Mr. Houlihan says one thing about the industry that hasn’t changed – the regulation. Each state has its own rules when it comes to what you can sell, where you can sell it and how much you can sell it for.

“We’re the United States of America, but from an alcohol beverage standpoint, when you’re trying to sell wine interstate, it’s a loose confederation of independent countries held together by Oprah Winfrey and Ricky Lake,” he said.

“We’re selling ideas now, not wine.”

email: ssteepleton@newspress.com

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