Mistakes | The Barefoot Spirit

Why Brand integrity Matters and How to Get It

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

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

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

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

To read the complete article, please visit The Business Journals

Who We Are

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

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

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

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

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

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Is a Knowledge-Hungry Crowd Finally Ready for Wisdom?

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Thu, 26 Oct 2017 17:00:29 +0000

Is your email flooded with marketers pandering to your thirst for quick knowledge to “solve” the immediate problem at hand. Is your news feed is packed with ads promising six digits in six months, and all from your phone! “Just follow this process,” they say, “and you too will be a success!”

With the overflow of information at your fingertips, it’s easy to get the idea that whatever you want to know is instantly accessible. “There’s an app for that,” has now evolved into “There’s a cut-and-paste process for that.” But is process knowledge enough by itself? Just access, copy and apply, and all your needs will be fulfilled. Right?

By the time you figure out that the quick fix doesn’t achieve your desired results, the damage has been done. You are out both the fees you paid and the time you invested. You realize that the knowledge you attained was inadequate for the outcome you had envisioned.

Because you have been inadvertently “trained” by the very searching and training process itself, to copy examples, it is easy to miss out on the principles behind those examples. When you learned that process, did you really understand the commonality of principles that can be applied to other situations? “Who cares if there’s an overriding principle,” you might say, “I’ll just cut and paste a new example when I need it, and never have to learn the principal behind it.”

To learn and appreciate those overriding principles, lessons should start with a good solid foundation in the basics. But this may take more time than you were willing to invest. You may have to learn some things that apparently don’t immediately apply to the problem at hand. This would take time, too. So, you skip all that in favor of applying the process without the principles. You have knowledge without wisdom. You got the “how” without the “why.”

But the digital marketer, the preacher, and the politician are glad you’re impatient and want quick, simple answers. It’s easier to sell you a process than a philosophy. It’s easier to sell you a sensational headline than a history book. And it’s easier to blame and marginalize minorities when you’re looking for simple answers. Basically, you’re easier to manipulate if you let today’s over-simplified approach to knowledge dumb you down.

With all this knowledge, so readily available, why does the “crowd” continue to make so many mistakes? The crowd is knowledge hungry, but as history unfolds, we are seeing demonstrations of how easily the crowd can be, and has been, manipulated. The crowd can be easily spooked. Its weakness is impatience.

Sourcing the crowd for navigational assistance is one thing, but sourcing the crowd for instant decisions that impact our social behavior is quite another.

Simply put, is the crowd wise enough to rule directly? Will they be manipulated by ads that play into their suspicions? Will they elect one demigod after another in search of a quick fix without ever learning why the government has checks and balances? Will they allow the environment to degrade while they are transfixed by the latest trending story?

Without patience, healthy skepticism, and a thirst for principle over process, the crowd is limited to reporting status. True, this is very helpful. But before the crowd can be relied upon for guidance, it must embrace strategy over tactics, principles over examples, and history over headlines.

We’ve never before had so much knowledge at our disposal. The fact is, we are all quite new at this. How many disasters will it take for the crowd to gain the long-term wisdom it needs, and then use that knowledge wisely and not be corrupted by its ease of access? True wisdom takes time. Will we give it the time it deserves?

If this all sounds like an ad for classical education, it is! Until the crowd understands the basics, the big picture, and the implications of its own periodic stampedes, it will be relegated to telling you where the next road hazard is, or the room for rent.

Who We Are

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

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Are You Giving Your People Permission to be Brilliant?

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Thu, 21 Apr 2016 17:00:31 +0000

These days there are tons of companies that say they want their people to be more engaged, but are they giving them permission to do so? Yes, permission! It’s subtle, but powerful.

Permission is a powerful idea in determining company culture. Are you giving your people permission to be creative, make decisions, solve problems, and take responsibility? Or, in the name of efficiency, structure, or compliance, are you preventing the very type of support you need?

Here are some ways to give your people permission:

Compensation. Some part of employees’ compensation should be based on sales, growth, and productivity. It will take some time to identify and agree upon metrics used to measure those key indicators, but get started now and tweak it every year until it’s right. If you offer a bonus, make it quarterly. A year is too long for them to remember, or if after a poor first half of the year, they may just give up. Quarterly is short enough to remember, and if they have a bad quarter, well, there’s a new opportunity next quarter.

Knowledge. Your staff can’t help you if you don’t tell them what you need. Many businesses believe in the “need-to-know” policy which keeps employees in the dark. We believe in the “know-the-need” policy which includes them in the company’s challenges, opportunities and triumphs. They already have your corporate knowledge and a stake in solving your problems, especially if they share in your success. We suggest quarterly meetings with sales and sales support staff (i.e., everybody not in sales) to brainstorm solutions. They will surprise you with their great ideas!

Access. Clear the channels of communication. Don’t force interdepartmental messages go through a complex pyramid structure, and back to the department right next door. Don’t lock down creativity by allowing compliance to use fear to demand that everything goes through them. Their extensive turnaround time itself can discourage many good ideas from ever surfacing. Give your people ways to access top management directly to prevent middle managers from stopping good ideas.

Acknowledgement. Thank each of your people publically for all the good ideas they’ve produced to improve your company. This validation will make them want to do more. Their teammates will see your acknowledgement, and want some for themselves. We recommend once a year, on their anniversary, send the entire staff a memo that summarizes what that staff member did during the past year that improved the company, resulting in bigger bonuses for the whole staff. This will give everyone more respect for their teammate’s contribution and improve overall teamwork.

Mistakes. Give your people permission to experiment and make mistakes – as long as they make mistakes in a productive manner. This means that they come to you with the mistake they made and a list of documents that need to be created, altered or improved, so the mistake is less likely to reoccur. Companies that frown on mistakes force their people to hide them and the opportunity to improve the company’s policies and procedures is lost. Encourage your people to aim not blame. Aim at what they can do to prevent a reoccurrence, and don’t disempower themselves by blaming others.

Your people are looking for the limits you will allow. Some are very obvious and necessary like dependability, production and civil behavior. Beyond that, show your “personal settings” by giving them the permissions we have discussed here. The message will soon become crystal clear and they will operate within those limits. Don’t let your structure and procedures deny your people the permission they need to help you!

Who We Are

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

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Become Indispensable by Taking Responsibility for Your Performance

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Thu, 10 Dec 2015 18:00:31 +0000

Successful entrepreneurs and their team members take responsibility for their own performance and the performance of others upon whom they depend. In other words, they get the job done. In fact, they take the success of their company, department, and job – well personal.

One of the most common questions we get wherever we keynote is, “What kept you going when times got tough?” We usually answer with the unending support of our customers, our unbeatable staff, and one more thing – we “owned it” literally and figuratively.

Sure, we owned the enterprise insofar as we paid the bills, owed the bank, and ran the company. But beyond that, we also “owned” the responsibility for the success of the business. No excuses! We couldn’t blame others for our mistakes, circumstances, or inability to deliver. It was always ultimately our responsibility, no matter what happened. In other words, we owned it. That realization also kept us going. It gave use the tenacity to keep trying different ways to make it better until it became a roaring success.

We were fortunate to have attracted a team of like-minded coworkers. It took us years to learn how to hire, orient and train effectively, but we finally got it right. We have even written about what we learned in our book The Barefoot Spirit. When we finally hired the right people they all had one quality in common. They owned their jobs!

We as owners did not have to worry about whether they knew their job, their mission, or their skill set. We did not hear excuses blaming others for poor performance. They took control over their jobs and progress, looked for ways around road blocks, sought help, listened to advice, stayed on top of the latest technologies, improved their checklists, and never blamed others for unsuccessful outcomes.

They took full responsibility. And why? Because they saw adversity, learning curves, and being outside their comfort zones as a personal challenge they took great pride in overcoming. It was like beating your personal best.

A big part of your success is feeling empowered to overcome obstacles and taking personal responsibility for getting your job done. Here’s six tips that you can use to overcome obstacles:

1. Start and Improve Checklists. Any time a mistake is made, the procedure to avoid it in the future goes on your checklist to prevent a reoccurrence.

2. Cleanup Your Own Backyard. Do all you can with the help of your colleagues and counterparts to solve any operational, communication, or procedural problems on your end so progress is more likely to be made.

3. Ask, “What Did I Do Wrong?” Even when it was “their fault,” ask yourself, “What can I do better next time?”

4. Anticipate Misunderstandings. Proactively look for ways you could be misunderstood, your packages mis-delivered, your outsourced work done wrong, or a deadline missed. Improve your policies, notices, reports, and communications to better achieve your milestones and goals.

5. Use Calendars. Anticipate not only the approach of important dates, periods, holidays, and seasons, but also the leads times, deadlines, and current progress of the folks on whom you depend.

6. Notify Customers and Superiors of Your Progress. Don’t make others have to ask if you completed your project or not. Give them the sense of security that only comes from your timely, accurate and regular progress reports.

You want your business to be successful, your department to meet its goals, and your boss to find you indispensable, right? So take responsibility for your own job, your own progress, and your own difficulties.

If you want to become indispensable, JUST OWN IT!

Who We Are

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

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Millennials Benefit from the Successes and Failures of Boomers

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Thu, 30 Jul 2015 17:00:27 +0000

According to Wikipedia, “The Information Age formed by capitalizing on computer microminiaturization advances. This evolution of technology in daily life, as well as of educational life style, has allowed rapid global communications and networking to shape modern society.” Clearly, this Information Age has given us many tools that have improved our lives.

It’s easy to get carried away with the advances in technology and possibly even come to the conclusion that those who didn’t grow up with it have nothing to offer. But this is far from the truth! Technology has given us tools that make communication easier, but also raises questions of privacy. Automation has made business processes more efficient, but sometimes less flexible. Applications have enabled us to quickly perform functions, thus allowing us rely less on our resourcefulness and cognitive abilities. Social networking has increased our ability to interact with a greater number of people, but has dulled our social and communication skills.

The millennials were born into this incredible information revolution. However, experiencing a day and time before that revolution makes boomers keenly aware of how the technology has, in some ways, pandered to our human desire to work less, think less and insulate ourselves from criticism. Perhaps it is easy for boomers to see this because they come from an era before the information revolution, giving them a more objective view about not only what has been gained, but what has been lost. Some of what has been lost may be critical to the very success of those millennials.

Today it is still hard work, critical thinking, resourcefulness, and a willingness to accept constructive criticism, and even rejection, that foster the essentials of true entrepreneurial success. Growing up in a world where information is so easy to access and people have hundreds of “friends” may have diminished the importance of valuable traits such as innovation, tenacity, and relationship building.

As childless boomers ourselves, and as successful entrepreneurs, we have dedicated ourselves to helping millennials achieve their own success. We want them to benefit not only from technology, but also from the time-tested guiding principles and standards that never change – principles which we learned too many times the hard way. We want to cut the time and money it takes to succeed in half by giving them the benefit of our experience. In the past two years we have spoken to millennials in 40 universities in three continents about the lessons we learned in the hopes that they will apply it to benefit their own endeavors. It’s not the rosy picture of super hero success that makes the news and gets all the hits and likes. It’s more about the real and imperfect world in which we live – and understanding how to best communicate with the people in it.

We give the millennials examples of our own mistakes in real life stories they can relate to. We outline the assumptions we made (much like the ones they now hold) that led us to those mistakes. We give them practical and tactical, rather than abstract and philosophical, advice so they can avoid these mistakes. We get granular and hands-on. When the millennials tell us we “connected the dots” for them, we are thrilled! We know we have made a difference with this great generation of new entrepreneurs! It’s what we as boomers have to give that will improve everyone’s future.
Technology is even better when we add in the experience of the pre-techno generation. Millennials are invited to check out our new webinar series we created especially for them. Here we share the guiding principles for success that we used building the Barefoot Wine brand. Some things never change!

Who We Are

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

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USASBE Is Dedicated to Excellence in the Education of Entrepreneurship

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Sat, 11 Jan 2014 22:57:50 +0000

USASBE, The United States Association of Small Business and Entrepreneurship, is a non-profit organization that provides support for the colleges and universities across the country that are teaching entrepreneurship. They serve as a forum to share best practices, leading edge techniques, and most effective curriculums. There are effectively raising the standards for this relatively new degree.

Unlike other degrees, a degree in Entrepreneurship can’t really be used to land a job or impress anyone. It’s all about self-employment – creating and running your own business. Today there is an explosion of interest in entrepreneurship and in entrepreneurship education.

The advent of USASBE couldn’t have come at a better time and we are avid supporters. Last year we spoke at their annual conference in San Francisco and we were honored to be invited back to their 2014 conference in Ft Worth. During 2013, we traveled the country, speaking at colleges and universities that teach entrepreneurship. We spoke about how to navigate your business from here to there given the unforeseen and seemingly insurmountable challenges ahead.

In business navigation, like tennis, boxing, or almost any sport, you have to assume the action-ready stance with your knees bent, ready for anything. You don’t know where the ball or the blow will come from, but you do your best to be prepared for it. You make yourself both as stable and as flexible as you can. You also need a few tools like a compass, a hard hat and a flashlight, because you can easily get lost, take a hit, and lose sight of your objective.

Having a set of “Guiding Principles” to hold every decision up against can help you make more right decisions. We attribute our success to those guiding principles which we collectively refer to as “the Barefoot Spirit.” Here is a very brief summary of the top 7:

Empathy. For every major decision, put yourself in the other person’s shoes. Understand what they want first. Then figure out how to get what you want by helping them get what they want. This goes for your customers, investors, employees, vendors and especially your community.
Alliances. Who are your strategic allies? Who benefits when you benefit. Look around you and see who’s going in the same direction. What suppliers will sell you more if you sell more? How can you help the community achieve its goals and give them a social reason to by your products?
Mistakes. Instead of blaming others, ask what you can do to make the mistake less likely to happen again. Identify and improve the documents that will prevent them from reoccurring. Maybe it’s a sign, label, check-list, sign-off sheet, policy, procedure, contract clause or a job description, but document it somewhere and fix the problem! Never waste a perfectly good mistake, and give your people permission to make them.
Sharing. Always take a smaller slice of a larger pie. Include those you depend on most in your success. Don’t be put a limit on your sales people’s commission so they can “sand bag” you, leave for a better paying job, and take your customers with them. Don’t be concerned if they make more than you; it’s “found” money.
Two-Divisions. Your company only has two divisions, Sales and Sales Support. Everyone who is not in Sales is in Sales Support. This includes Production, Marketing, Legal, Accounting, and even the Receptionist. Sales advises Marketing, not the other way around.
Performance. If you pay for attendance alone, you will hear, “I was there, pay me.” Give bonuses based on profitability. That way the non-producers can’t afford to stay and the producers can’t afford to quit. Turnover is the #1 hidden cost of doing business. Make sure everyone knows exactly where their salary, bonus, commission, and benefits come from, and that’s the customer!
Partnering. Treat your people like partners. Share the good and bad news with them. Publically acknowledge people for improving your company. Treat your bankers, investors, suppliers and vendors as partners, too. Share your challenges and your accomplishments, and ask them for their help and advice.

Our talks are beyond the structure, organization, and function of entrepreneurship. They are about the business philosophies and attitudes that can help prepare you for the unexpected and help you navigate your business to success. We are grateful to have the opportunity to promote the Barefoot Spirit to the next generation of entrepreneurs, and give them a big head start.

Who We Are

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

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