Conventional investor wisdom is simple: just invest in 10 – 20 startups, play the numbers game and hope for a unicorn. And the unicorns fill the covers of the business magazines with unlikely stories of instant success. This certainly panders to their readers desire for a fast track to success. But like Las Vegas, it’s only the winners you hear about.

Building the Barefoot Wine brand, we made a ton of mistakes. Since the acquisition, we have been writing, speaking and blogging on two sites about our real-world experiences. We have spoken at over 50 schools that teach entrepreneurship and regularly contribute to several business publications. Our goal is to increase the odds of success by sharing insights that come from actually doing it, so others, like you, don’t have to make the same costly, time-consuming mistakes we did.

We have been promoting the Barefoot Startup movement in an uphill battle against the backdrop of this kind of conventional “fast wisdom” for years. Now, finally, some help is on the horizon. We are absolutely thrilled with the new business book: Shortcut Your Startup: Speed Up Success with Unconventional Advice from the Trenches.

It’s the brain child of Courtney and Carter Reum, the founders of M-13, “a diversified holding and branding development company at the nexus of consumer brands, media and technology.” Their new book promises to “flip traditional startup advice on its head.”

Hailing from the beverage alcohol business like ourselves, we have an added level of respect for this dynamic duo. They created VEEV Spirits and took it through every stage of development from identifying the market opportunity, hand selling, building their customer base, taking it national, expanding their line, and monetizing on their brand equity through a successful acquisition. From what we know first-hand about the difficulties of that particular industry, this is an amazing outcome to a daunting task!

They started VEEV after successful careers at Goldman Sachs. They wanted to create a “one of a kind vodka alternative” with a commitment to sustainability and innovation. And they did just that.

Since then, M-13 has invested and involved itself with over 130 companies in the consumer brand, media, and technology spaces like, Pinterest, Lyft, SpaceX, Warby Parker, Bonobos, Thrive Market, Tender Greens, Pressed Juicery, KeVita, Blue Bottle Coffee, BirchBox, Ring, and more.

Their new book, Shortcut Your Startup, is based on their own experiences and that of their associates. These real-world lessons are a must-read for any serious startup. Some of the principles with which we wholeheartedly agree include:

• “Do What You Do Best, and Outsource the Rest.” This is always great advice. Too many startups try to do it all. We used outsourcing for most of our business functions so we could focus on sales and quality control.
• “Nail It Before You Scale It.” We like this way of putting it. We say, “Don’t scale to fail,” and, “Get your act together before you take your show on the road.”
• “Think Milestones, Not Time.” We advise our clients to understand the milestones and focus on their achievements no matter how long they take.
• “Get into the Trenches.” We like to say, “Don’t be afraid to get your hands dirty; you will gain insights you can’t see from your office.”
• “Gain Buy-In with Heart-Based Momentum.” We advise or clients to “Give your customers a social reason to buy your products, and turn them into advocates.”

There’s much, much more in this great startup toolbox to help you achieve the success you have always imagined. We are proud to give Shortcut Your Startup two toes way up!

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.

The post Is Conventional Wisdom about Starting a Business All Wrong? appeared first on The Barefoot Spirit.

The idea is to dominate your space, crush the competition, and become an acquisition target as quickly as possible. You’re even told to “fail fast!”

Seems like everything is fast, fast, fast!

If that’s such great advice, why do nine out of 10 startups fail?

The Highway Patrol will tell you that the leading cause of accidents is excessive speed. Is driving your startup too fast “crusin’ for a bruisin’?”

What makes you think you understand all the ramifications of growth when you hit the accelerator? How did you get the idea that you were ready to “step on it?”

The answers are many:

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.

The post How to Spin Up Fast Without Spinning Out of Control appeared first on The Barefoot Spirit.

There are way too many folks out there today selling “shovels” to the entrepreneurial “gold miners.”  They’ll help you with your website, your social networking, your on-line business, and even your pitch, as long as you make all the sales.

The idea behind the “shovel” merchants is to find folks who are excited about the possibilities, hyped up by the media, and possibly over simplifying the sales process.  If you are a new entrepreneur, you may be like the miner without the map. You’ll buy the shovel because you think if you’re going to mine gold, you’ll need it… assuming you’ll find gold, that is. The merchants will load you up with goods, services and applications you think you need …everything except the map. Bonnie has an expression we think is apropos, “If we had ham, we’d have ham and eggs, if we had eggs!”

Many of the products they’ll sell you are premature for your business development, based on faulty assumptions, or down right unnecessary.  Many require costly subscription fees and even require “experts” to run those services. Many of these services are trying to be all things to all people, so you wind up paying for services you will never need. Still, they require a myriad of plug-ins that work around their short comings. But what do the sellers care? They got your money and they’re down the road.

The map to the gold can only come from one source: another successful gold miner! In the case of entrepreneurship, this is an entrepreneur who has actually successfully started and run a business, and is now willing to share the secrets that lead him or her to the “gold.” These are the folks you should be seeking out –  especially when you’re starting out. For one thing, they can save you a ton on premature overhead and monthly fees because they too have made those same mistakes. They will help you focus on building the true client base that justifies buying any supportive services, as well as identifying exactly what kinds of services you need, and more importantly, when.

New business owners who have recently been funded are sitting ducks for the shovel sellers who prey on those looking for the “next” gold rush. Today entrepreneurship is the next gold rush. Don’t be swept up in the hype. It’s really all about getting and keeping your customers. Take a closer look at that reality first! The tools and services won’t guarantee those customers but acquiring those customers is absolutely necessary to be able to afford taking on additional overhead. And how do you acquire those customers? Talk to successful entrepreneurs who have already done so, built their business, and even monetized their brand equity. These are the folks with the gold maps!

We can’t tell you how many failed businesses we have seen that loaded up on needless overhead before they ever made a sale and just flat out, ran out of money. Today’s access to capital through crowd funding seems to exacerbate this problem. Often, neither the crowd doing the funding nor the recipient of the funding fully understand the process of achieving a positive cash flow. They are both clouded with the hype surrounding the product or service itself, and they believe taking on major overhead is a requirement for success. So they tend not to scrutinize the investments in overhead until it’s too late!

Bottom line: Buy a map before you buy a shovel!

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.

The post New Entrepreneurs are Easy Prey for Dubious Merchants appeared first on The Barefoot Spirit.

But we’ve found that best way to make the New Year better is to take some time over the Holidays to make a list of what went right this last year. We call it our Annual Accomplishments List. It forces us to really think about all that we have accomplished in the “Old Year.”

Every year about this time, we spend an hour or two going through our calendar to help us recollect what happened. Then we make a list of everything we’ve accomplished, everything that did go right, and all the great times we had. We also add all the great people we met or did business with. We take the opportunity to continue to grow these new relationships by putting them into our contacts and sending them a personal note of appreciation before the year end. If you use this method, it’s amazing, but you will discover that you are making progress, making new friends and achieving your goals!

By taking the time to put together your “Old Year” list several great things can happen. You become more grateful instead of frustrated, hopeful instead of fearful, and most importantly you have real evidence that you can achieve your goals. All this results in an attitude you can take with you into the New Year where you will expect solutions. You will be looking for them at every turn. You will be less likely to overlook solutions just because they weren’t wrapped in a pretty package and hand delivered. The more you appreciate what you have the more you get what you want, if for no other reason than you are focusing on what you want and not what you don’t!

Now you are ready to work on your New Year’s resolutions with the confidence that comes from success. You can more easily visualize your new goals finding their way onto your next year’s Annual Accomplishments List. Why? Because you took the time to appreciate your progress this year, saw it all on one list and said, “Yes! I can do this!”

We want to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you who has followed us and shared our blog posts, joined us on social media, and attended our talks and Keynotes throughout the year. We hope that our experience has made a positive difference in your lives and businesses.

Michael and Bonnie say thank you for a great Old Year and we wish you all a very Happy and Prosperous New Year!

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.

The post Happy Old Year! Be Thankful for What Went Right to See More Go Right! appeared first on The Barefoot Spirit.

The media capitalizes on our natural self- preservation instincts and the bad news can become down right addicting. But in the process something else is happening. We are getting conditioned to expecting bad news. And that conditioning can easily make us less likely to look for and celebrate what’s going on that is right.

We actually play a game with the news every day. It’s called “Find the good news!” We each take a section of the paper or news site over breakfast and hunt for the good news. First one to find it wins! We have to really dig because it’s usually hidden in the back somewhere. Yes, it’s quite challenging and some days we have to settle for a department store ad as the only “good” news.

But we often find 2 or 3 great uplifting pieces of information. It’s not only better for digestion but it gives us some hope and a positive attitude to start our day. If the bad news will really affect our personal security, you can bet we will hear about it from our friends, family, neighbors or colleagues. So we don’t worry about missing something important to our survival.

Today was especially challenging, but Bonnie won the ”Good News” game with an article she found on the back pages where a team at the University of California in Irvine may have discovered a way to eliminate malaria. Malaria! The mosquito born disease responsible for half the deaths in the history of man! Last month Michael won with “Flowing Water Discovered on Mars!” Also in the back pages.

We also face daily personal and professional frustrations that can affect our outlook. To keep ourselves pumped up, we keep a log of all the milestones we have achieved toward each goal. When we get a little depressed, we go back and read the litany of our progress. Never mind if there was no progress one week. Taking the larger view of history, we regain our positive perspective that we are in fact making progress.

We use these and other techniques to prevent us from getting into the victim mindset where we view ourselves as helpless and powerless to make a difference or a change.

We are convinced from our own personal experience, that when you acknowledge what you want when you see or hear it, you get more of it! Why? Because you are conditioning yourself to expect solutions and you are looking for them. That expectation can keep you going through the difficulties and challenges. You keep a sharp eye out for solutions.

You are less likely to overlook a solution just because it wasn’t a shining diamond presented in a velvet box. In fact it’s often a mud-covered rock that conceals an uncut diamond that requires you to work with it. Maybe you catch a glimpse of a tiny spark of light out of the muddy rock. But you are tuned in. You see it because you are looking for it.

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody! More of what you are grateful for is coming your way!

Probably the greatest way to condition yourself to expect solutions and to tune in to opportunities is to acknowledge what you already have and give thanks. You can’t give thanks without recognition, appreciation, and a wish for whatever good news you find to endure.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! Here’s to getting more of what we are thankful for!

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.

The post Gratitude Gets You More of What You are Thankful For appeared first on The Barefoot Spirit.

We look for stories of success, solutions, and humanitarianism. Admittedly, some days it’s a real challenge. One time we had to actually resort to reading the advertisements because all the news articles were so negative!

In many ways, we are environmental determinists. That means we believe that you are, to a large degree, influenced by your immediate environment and habitual behaviors. And that’s the good news – because you can do something about those influencers. You can clean up your desk or your backyard, you can paint your room or vacuum your car, and you can listen to classical or heavy metal.

These are all choices that have a physical and psychological effect. All of these and more are environmental choices we make actively or passively. To exhibit control, we must take control. Too often we take our surroundings  as a given. It is so easy to get into a routine that puts us in a rut. It can affect the way we think, our outlook, and our emotional attitude.

If you believe, as we do, that like attracts like, you have to consider what the effect daily bombardment of bad news must have on one’s day. If you are looking for good things to happen and expect to see solutions to your challenges, you will be more likely to see them. If you are filled with negative stories, you will be more likely to overlook the good things because you won’t expect them to happen. Even when you are looking a solution right in the face, you might not see it because you don’t believe it’s there. How do we get to that point of negativity where we are actually blinded to what’s right in front of us? We believe it’s the news.

The news is a business like any other. It needs to give the customer (you) a compelling reason to buy it. News editors know “If it bleeds, it reads!” They know that our prehistoric brains are prewired for survival. They know we are always on the lookout for anything that can harm us. They know how to work this psychological defensive mechanism by assaulting you with fear and danger on a daily basis. But what does this do for you, first thing in the morning? Are you more positive and cheerful, more trusting and more expectant for great things to unfold during your day, or does it leave you more cynical and defensive, expecting the worse? You know the answer.

This is part of your environment over which you do have control. So what are you going to do about it? Do you want to saturate yourself with negativity right before you step out the door, or do you want to set the tone for the day on a more positive note? Take charge of those precious few initial hours that can affect your whole day. The news that you need to survive will come to you anyway sooner or later, but for now, try to play the “Find the Good News” game. You will be the winner!

This is not religious or woo-woo. This is a practical, proven way to open your eyes and ears to opportunities that you may otherwise overlook. Not only that, but it’s a heck of a lot of fun!

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.

The post Find the Good News! appeared first on The Barefoot Spirit.

Our Syracuse trip is starting off with a BANG! We are happy to announce that we will be interviewed on News Channel 9’s “Bridge Street” Segment. To view the interview, please click HERE

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.

The post NewsChannel 9 WSYR “Bridge Street” TV Interview appeared first on The Barefoot Spirit.