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.
Her movement, Lean In, aims to revive this crucial conversation, benefiting not just women but the entire economy. Imagine the potential if we fully leveraged 100% of the workforce!
When we started Barefoot Wines, we couldn’t afford to uphold the “old boys’ club” mentality that persists in many large corporations. In those early days, gender was never a factor in our hiring decisions. We needed the best talent to survive, whether for winemaking, marketing, or management, and we hired accordingly—many of whom were women.
However, we encountered challenges with gender bias when dealing with other businesses, particularly in trying to sell our products to predominantly female shoppers while navigating through male-dominated gatekeepers. To meet customer needs, we broke industry norms by blending different vintages for consistency, driven by our understanding of what women wanted in their wines.
The question remains:
– Why do larger corporations persist in gender discrimination?
– Are their budgets so large that they overlook the necessity of hiring the best person for the job, regardless of gender?
– Are male decision-makers banding together to protect their jobs at the expense of the companies they serve?
Women-owned businesses, now the top U.S. employers next to publicly traded companies, are growing rapidly, partly because they offer no glass ceilings.
Large companies must recognize the benefits of gender equality in the workplace before women leave to start their own ventures.