generation | The Barefoot Spirit

Can a 15-Year-Old School Girl Change the World?

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Thu, 28 Feb 2019 17:40:02 +0000

If you’re over 21, you are considered an adult. If you’re 18 or older you can vote. But if you’re 14 or 15, how do you make yourself heard?

Right now, all over the world, young teenagers are making their voices heard. It’s hard to ignore. It’s in the news every week and you can expect to read more about them as time goes on. It’s a global youth movement that is not going away. It’s a worldwide climate strike!

Students in more than 450 countries are choosing a Friday to play hooky for a good cause – their own survival! It’s hard to believe that we as adults have kicked the can down the road so far that we now have a generation that is facing irreversible climate disaster in their own lifetime. As Howard Beale says, in the 1976 movie, Network, “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore!”

And why should they? They will be on the planet a lot longer than today’s adults. 15-year-old Greta Thunberg has become the figurehead for the school climate strikes that will soon be in your neighborhood. Greta sums it all up in her address to the UN Climate Conference in Poland and subsequent interview.

Climate Change and Entrepreneurship

Because we are big supporters of entrepreneurship, we’d like to examine the school climate strike movement from the standpoint of its implications to the business market. We believe real change, even mitigation of climate change, comes from the way we, as consumers, spend our money. Real change comes from the products and services we choose to buy.

Survivalist Buying Trends

It’s simple! The vendors who get our money use it to lobby to protect their investment in market share. If we don’t give them our money, and better yet, if we give our money to healthy alternatives, then those vendors will have the influence. It all starts with how you choose to spend your money.

These kids know that. They’re not just striking out of class. They’re communicating with each other on a level never seen before in the history of the world! They’re discussing this very premise and what it means regarding their own current and future purchases. According to Nielsen, these new “survivalist” buying trends are already beginning to dominate the market.

Given the fact that in about three years, these teenagers will be voting, and in just about six years, they will be considered adults, shouldn’t today’s savvy entrepreneurs be paying attention to what kind of products and services these kids are going to buy now and in the not-too-distant future?

Green Opportunity

For our own part, we have been looking for, researching, and helping just those kinds of “green” businesses. We know they will be in demand and more importantly, on the right side of history. Why not sell products and services to the student climate strikers? They are a growing market that is quickly becoming educated about the implications of their purchases. This is an opportunity for all entrepreneurs to get ahead of the curve and benefit from the new megatrend. And isn’t this what good business is all about anyway?

When Greta says she’s giving up on our generation to make the change in time, when Greta says that her generation is taking action, she’s not just talking about striking. She’s talking about a whole new generation changing their buying habits. Let’s give these kids what they want and what they need! It may help us, in some small way, to redeem our own generation for being asleep at the switch. It’s happening and it’s happening now!

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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Put More Money in the Bank by Treating Salespeople Right!

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Thu, 18 Oct 2018 17:00:08 +0000

Salespeople have been given a bad name. It is depicted in The Music Man, the musical decrying the manipulating tactics of a salesman selling horns in a town where no one needed them. It’s portrayed in old movies like Used Cars, where unsuspecting folks are tricked into buying wrecks. And it is in our minds when the phone rings and the caller has trouble pronouncing our names.

We have an entire generation that shuns sales and salespeople. They’ve even created a negative term to describe any approach to trying to convince another person to buy as “salesy.” It’s like the sales process itself is somehow bad or distasteful.

Maybe when we were kids, we overheard our parents complaining at the un-welcomed knock at the door, “Oh it’s that salesperson again. They‘re always trying to sell me something! They just won’t leave me alone!”

Fast-forward 20 years and those kids are now adults trying to start their own business. But they bring with them a prejudice that will actually hurt their business and cost them plenty!

We’re not going to sit here and say, “Nothing happens until the sale is made.” We’re not even going to say, “Everybody’s paycheck is a result of sales.” True as these statements may be, were going to focus on another reason to treat salespeople right.

The salesperson doesn’t just knock on the door of your business. They knock on the doors of your competitors’ businesses. While you are stuck in your office, warehouse, or production facility working to grow your business, they are outside, moving around, constantly surveying the market and keeping tabs on your competition. In other words, they know tons that you need to know!

If you keep them waiting for an hour because you think they are trying to get over on you, or worse, you want to send them a message about how you feel about salespeople altogether, you’re missing a giant opportunity to get the information you need to improve your odds of success.

When you hustle them in and out, cut them off, or treat them like second-class citizens, they’re not going to share what they know. In fact, they’ll want to make the visit as short as possible so they can share what they know with your enlightened competitors.

Why would a poorly treated salesperson let you in on an overstock situation that his boss was suffering that could benefit you with lower prices, free warehousing, and extended terms for the goods you need? They will save that offer for your competitors.

When we started Barefoot Wines, we really didn’t know what we were doing. We depended on the salespeople who knocked on our door to give us the insights they had about the changing dynamics of the marketplace and the strategies of our competitors. We didn’t keep them waiting. We didn’t treat them with disrespect. On the contrary, we invited them in like family members we hadn’t seen in a long time. We introduced them around the office. We took them to lunch.

It was a small investment for what we got in return. They walked us through complicated logistics, cash flow, and inventory and compliance challenges. They told us what our competition was up to. They turned us on to the best possible ways we could acquire the products we needed at the lowest possible costs. They were a Godsend!

They told us that we were their favorite sales call. They said they looked forward to seeing us succeed and they lived up to those words with Intel and discounts we could have never achieved otherwise.

So, the next time you hear that salesperson knocking on your door, that just might be the sound of opportunity knocking. It was for us, and with the right attitude, it can be for you!

Who We Are

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

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Why Are You Going into Business?

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Thu, 10 Aug 2017 17:00:59 +0000

The first question we ask prospective clients is, “Why are you going into business?” This seems like an obvious first question, but most folks considering taking the big leap don’t really give it the attention it deserves. The answer can determine your strategy, goals, and even your recordkeeping.

When we ask, “Why,” we usually get answers like, “Well, to get rich, of course!” or “It’s always been my passion” or even, “I’ve always wanted to be my own boss”. Yet none of these popular answers really address the only three practical reasons why you can be in business: You can create a job for yourself; you can start a legacy; or you can build a brand and monetize its brand equity.

If you create a job for yourself, your “paycheck” is only as good as your time “on the clock.” If you don’t work, you don’t get paid. Sure, you can hire people to work for you to keep the business going in your absence, but this type of business is limited to trading time for dollars. You may build up some equity which someone may pay you for. But essentially, you have created a business that is operating on daily income and profits, with no long-term plan to monetize the brand equity through a sale or merger.

People who choose this kind of business usually tell us they are following their passion and well they should. But many also say they never want to sell and act like they can go on forever. If and when they do decide to sell, it’s usually because they have to due to age or health, or they finally tire of the work. Selling for them is an afterthought to achieving a business that expresses their passion.

The other group that “has no intention of ever selling” are the folks who think they are starting a legacy. Their plan involves their kids becoming vested in their business and wanting to continue their legacy. This is a wonderful way to include your family’s future in your business. But only a small percentage of planned legacy businesses succeed beyond the first generation.

The last group, in which we count ourselves, is interested in monetizing their brand equity. They want to use their ideas, concepts, and products to build a viable business that attracts an acquirer. They take acquisition of their business very seriously.

These are the people we can help the most. These are the kinds of businesses that are designed from the get-go to have all the hallmarks of an acquisition target. They grow into something saleable. They can run without the owner. And they are set up from day one to satisfy their acquirer’s due diligence.

One of the guiding principles of the Barefoot Spirit approach to doing business is to ask yourself why you are in business in the first place. If your answer is to build and monetize your brand equity, then you must assemble a short list of who would want to buy your company, why and when. You must organize your books, records, and reports to reflect your acquirer’s due diligence. You must reinvest your “profits” into expansion. And you must determine how, when, and where you expand to get your peanut in front of the elephant. We share what we learned about this fine art in our Guiding Principles for Success.

We’ve been through it, from ideation to monetization. These are just some of the business decisions that become heavily influenced by your early decision to eventually sell. if monetizing your brand equity is why you are going into business, we can help!

Who We Are

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

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Is Extrapolation an Endangered Talent?

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Wed, 07 Jun 2017 07:00:50 +0000

One of the top skills we look for in a new hire is the ability to extrapolate (“to infer (an unknown) from something that is known” -Dictionary.com). Can the applicant take a principle learned from one example and apply it to a new situation?

During the interview process, we often ask, “In your previous job, can you give us an example of a problem you solved by applying a principle you discovered in another situation?” Most folks answer with a question, “Like what?” or, “Can you give me an example?” And therein lies the problem.

When people in the boomer generation were growing up, our parents would inevitably say, “Why don’t you kids go outside and play?” We had no video games, no computers, and no electronic toys. Except for bikes, we had very few manufactured toys. We made our own toys, and, in most cases, we made up our own games.

We had to extrapolate. We were forced to be imaginative. We were forced to be resourceful. We were hands on and creative. If anything, our parents were worried that we were watching too much T.V.

We were forced to learn principles first, then apply them to examples. You couldn’t build a toy or make up a game without knowing, or looking for, the principles that made the toy work or the game possible.

But then, the electronic babysitter came along with games and cookie-cutter challenges which the kids quickly mastered. Multiple choice and cut and paste quickly replaced start from scratch, build your own toy, and create your own games. But in the process, something very important was lost: critical thinking.

With the information age came a fixation on all things digital. Basically, imagination took a big hit, resourcefulness took a big hit, and so did extrapolation. Suddenly all your options were clearly described and laid out in front of you. You just had to choose between them.

Kids raised with this multiple choice, copy-and-paste approach could now learn examples without having to know, or even look for, the principles behind them. The problem is that later on in life, they turned into the “like what?” bird, saying “like what” to every request, even when the same principle was at work in two seemingly unrelated situations. Like what became the lazy, knee-jerk, and go-to response that required the least amount of thinking and responsibility.

Too bad business isn’t all prescribed choices. If it was, this dumbed down way of looking at things would work. But situations occur daily that require the application of previously learned principles in totally new situations. Extrapolation is essential for the type of imaginative problem solving that gives you the advantage in the market place.

Why hire a person who can only copy and paste? Why spend unending hours providing examples until they get it? And even then, they only get the example you described.

This is why so many employers are looking for people who will make the training process a breeze and quickly prove that they can create imaginative solutions on the fly – people who willingly and competently take responsibility for jobs where all the answers are not clearly spelled out.

So, if you are a parent, consider what that screen is doing to your kids’ future. If you are one of those kids, take a break and go out and play! If you were raised by computers, look for the principle behind the scenes. Seek it out before you just copy and paste!

Who We Are

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

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Student Debt is Everyone’s Problem

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Thu, 08 Sep 2016 17:00:56 +0000

What if you gave a back-to-school sale and nobody came? That’s what retailers are facing this year as many college students and grads face the frugal realities of their college debt. In the last recession we saw how interrelated the various elements of the economy are. Remember when they said, “Don’t worry, the recession will be contained in one sector,” but as time progressed, sector after sector collapsed like a line of falling dominos? The first domino to fall this time may be the $80 billion student loan debt.

Some Boomers are quick to point out how they were able to work their way through college without relying on the easy-to-get college loans available to the new generation. Some ask, “Why didn’t they realize that the money would have to be paid back?” as if somehow shifting the blame will make it their problem? This is not their problem. This is our problem!

Just like the stock market and housing sector collapse in the last recession, a major segment of the economy is beginning to buckle. 20 and 30-year-olds, saddled with high levels of student debt, have already begun to cut back on their retail spending. This should be their most productive and strongest time to contribute to our economy. Retailers are already seeing the hit. This will affect jobs, commerce, finances, – everything.

We all need these new buyers to spend to support the future of our economy. Their contribution is essential to our standard of living. None of us can afford to lose the buying power of this generation. Our economy has always been driven by retail sales. It has always been the canary in the coal mine. How can we save the canary? And by “we,” we are talking about retailers, lenders, the government, and the general public.

Perhaps we can reverse engineer a solution by starting with the goals that would work to everyone’s advantage? The folks with student debt get a reprieve. The retailers make the sales they need to keep the economy going, the lenders get paid, the government avoids a catastrophe, and the general public side-steps another recession.

We think a possible solution has to involve a large-scale refinancing program, interest forgiveness, and in some cases, where grad businesses create jobs, actual loan forgiveness. What is the cost of another recession? Can we avoid it with timely, and ultimately less costly, measures designed to free up the productivity and financial contribution of current student debtors? What is the value to the economy of increased sales, new jobs, and increased tax revenue? What is the value of a stronger and more wealthy generation that can ultimately be in a better position to pay those loans off? Are those values greater than the cost of a solution? We think so.

In the meantime, what can retailers do beside further reducing prices and extending payment terms? Retailers have the credibility and the influence to advise their elected officials on the solutions to this pending new recession. They can warn about its attendant tax and financial implications to the government and overall economy. And they can call for immediate action before the next domino falls.

A quote from this post appeared in a recent article recent article in AMEX Open Forum.

Michael Houlihan and Bonnie Harvey are the Founders of Barefoot Wines, New York Times Bestselling Authors of The Barefoot Spirit, How Hardship, Hustle, and Heart Built America’s #1 Wine Brand and The Entrepreneurial Culture, 23 Ways to Engage and Empower your People.

Who We Are

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

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Enactus – Creating Sustainable Solutions Through Entrepreneurship

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Thu, 10 Sep 2015 18:05:07 +0000

We want to take this opportunity to salute Enactus, an international non-profit, dedicated to creating sustainable solutions through entrepreneurship. Formally known as Students in Free Enterprise, their approach is to help humanity and make the world a better place by inspiring, educating, and encouraging the next generation to start and grow businesses that solve economic and environmental challenges. Focusing on students, Enactus provides the knowhow, resources, and mentoring necessary to create new businesses that make a difference.

Their name Enactus, stands for entrepreneurship, action and cooperation by all of us: businesses, students, educators, donors, and the community. With 550 corporate partners in 36 countries, they positively affect more than 70,500 students in 1,700 university programs. Their underlying emphasis is on integrity, the fundamental basis of trust, credit and ultimate sustainability in all successful enterprises.

Unlike many entrepreneurial education programs, they take action. Students actually create new businesses. Using video, oral, and written presentations, students take leadership roles in developing and delivering proposals that teach free enterprise to the community through sustainable entrepreneurial projects. This accomplishes three important goals: it gets students to focus on social problems, it makes students aware of their social responsibilities, and it challenges them to come up with sustainable business models to solve them. In other words, it allows the next generation of business leaders to discover how free enterprise can solve some of the pressing survival issues of our time.

Students are organized into college-sponsored teams that compete with other students in other colleges in their region and nation. National business leaders choose from among the best ideas to improve the quality of life and standard of living for people in need. Winners advance to the Enactus World Cup.

Through this competitive process, students are given an opportunity to display their imagination and communication skills. It also provides a forum for interaction and an opportunity to showcase their talents to business leaders looking for top talent and socially responsible business leaders. Through the execution of their projects, students learn the challenges and solutions of entrepreneurship with the help of volunteers, faculty, alumni, and other businesses.

The 2014 winner was a team of students from the North China Electric Power University in Beijing who brought light and power to herdsmen in Mongolia with wind and solar installations and created a sustainable company to maintain the equipment. Their project entitled “Empowering the Grasslands” happened because of one student’s awareness of the plight of more than 900,000 people who burn animal dung for light and power, exposing themselves to serious health and safety hazards. At the world competition, the team collaborated with many other teams from around the world to refine their venture.

This and thousands of other student-created ventures is made possible through Enactus. As “entrepreneurial cheerleaders,” we have spoken to tens of thousands of students of entrepreneurship around the world, encouraging them to start and grow their own businesses using what we call the guiding principles for success. Two of those principles are to put yourself in the other person’s shoes in every business relationship, and to make your business stand for more than just the mercantile goods and services it provides. Enactus is giving students, and tomorrow’s business leaders, hands-on experience with these two basic principles of entrepreneurial sustainability.

What we also like the message Enactus sends to students, and ultimately the world, that the quality of life can be improved through thoughtful and socially conscious business models which are for the most part, more efficient than government programs. Competition and the requirement to deliver products and services in a cost-effective manner are the hallmarks of successful entrepreneurship. They give people in the affected communities a livelihood making those solutions more likely to survive and prosper.

Who We Are

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

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A Message to the Graduates

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Thu, 18 Jun 2015 17:00:06 +0000

We attended the Stanford Commencement ceremonies to support our young friend Zach Stuart who was graduating in Mechanical Engineering. He was part of nearly 3,000 recipients in several different disciplines to receive their degrees this year from this paramount of higher education. As we sat there in the huge stadium and watched the proceedings we couldn’t help but recognize that these young people will change the future.

NBC News foreign correspondent Richard Engle, a Stanford grad himself, gave the keynote. He encouraged the grads to take chances and “Please don’t get a desk job!” He said that the world was on a collision course with three super trends: technology, over population, and climate change.

He warned that when these forces combine into a deadly cocktail we will see a chaotic and unstable future. He painted the picture of populations doubling and, at the same time, being able to better communicate. He said this would lead to political upheaval where demigods promise peace and stability but disappoint only to be replaced by yet another demigod. He drew the picture of a horrific collision between a bus and a car and said all of the human experience can be seen in that moment; life, death, rescue and escape. He told the grads they could learn from witnessing it.

After graduation Richard Engle left Stanford with $2000 in his pocket and a one-way ticket for Cairo. He said he has been shot at, kidnapped, arrested, and deported during his time as a celebrated war correspondent in the Middle East. His experiences may have contributed to the tone of his talk which was peppered with dire images of an apocalyptic future. Certainly the shock value got the grads attention with the somewhat redeeming message to get out there, take a chance and witness life to continue your education in the real world.

We take a different view. We have spoken to more than 20,000 students in the past two years, but our message takes a more positive spin. We believe this generation will be the saviors, not just the reporters, not just the helpless witnesses. On the contrary, no generation of western grads has been better educated, better informed on world events, more aware of climate change, and more concerned about over population than this one.

Today’s graduates can change the course of the “collision.” They can and will see these mega trends as opportunities for new paradigms, new inventions, and new solutions. Communication can not only make society aware of corruption and foment upheaval, but it can also demonstrate how personal behavioral can empower each of us to make positive changes that can change the world.

Over population’s consequences can be communicated and alternatives offered. New attitudes toward food, air and water can take hold much faster with enhanced communication. Increasing tech-driven transparencies can hold companies accountable for social, employment, and environmental impact.

Climate change can be mitigated with alternative sources of power and transportation. Just making alternative energy more efficient and less expensive than fossil fuel will help the environment, curb warming, and reduce the ongoing wars financed by fossil fuel sales.

All of this spells opportunity for today’s grads.

We want to encourage the grads to not just watch the future, but change the future. Maybe some young engineer like Zach will come up with a breakthrough invention that makes it all possible. One thing is for sure; all grads will be more likely to do it and even more if we let them know now that we are counting on them and believe they can do it! Go get ’em grads!

Who We Are

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

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